Nothing's as it should be
by Eryn Michaels
Summary: What would happen if Naruto had an older sister, one who he didn't know about, but who knew all about him? What if this sister was strongly influenced by the Kyuubi, and was Itachi's girlfriend? No Godmoded characters, smarter Naruto. T for normal Naruto-rated violence... ItaOC NaruHina... Rewritten as of 07/17/2012!
1. Nariko Informational Chapter

**Alright, so something wasn't working with the Nariko series, I became disconnected way too fast. So, I have decided to rewrite the series, and make it a bit better… So here is the information you might want to read through before reading onwards…**

Name; Namikaze Nariko – Mairi Nariko – Kitsune

Rank; This differs a bit, but she is unranked at the beginning, she will eventually join anbu, and she will eventually retire from anbu to become a leaf jounin.

Jutsu Affinity; Air and Water

Skill set; Heightened senses due to Kurama, Fuuinjutsu, Fuuton, Taijutsu

Adequate at; Suiton

Fails at; Genjutsu

Summoning; Fox contract

Summons;

-Kyemi; Large black vixen, large enough to ride (think large Akamaru size), main summon. Was a adolescent kit when she first became Nariko's main summon, has grown up with Nariko

-Takai; Large golden male fox, slightly larger than Kyemi in size. He is Kyemi's brother and responds to summons for Kyemi when the vixen is not available, also is one of Nariko's main summons.

-Kamura; Huge white male fox, about the size of a small building, secondary summon

-Kagura; Small white vixen, normal fox sized, messenger

Appearance;

She has short, spiky yellow hair with long bangs framing her face. Her bangs are wrapped with red bandages with an inch of yellow hair showing at the ends. Her bangs reach about shoulder length. Her short hair is pulled into a ponytail at the back of her head (kinda like Anko's, except for yellow hair…)

Her eyes are the same gray-blue as Kushina's, but they do flare violet or red with Kurama's influence. She is about Naruto's height in Shippuden, and slim. She wears baggy black pants that slightly cover dark red sandals. She wears a tight fitting black shirt that goes half-way up her neck but leave her arms completely bare. She wears black fingerless gloves and lower arm guards. Her hitai-ate she wears on her neck. Over her black shirt she wears a sleeveless jacket that falls to mid-thigh. It is dark red in color with black flames along the hem that could almost seem to be nine tails if one looked closely enough.

Eventually Minato creates a seal for protection that he also uses to double as the Namikaze symbol. Nariko sews this symbol into the backs of her gloves, shirts, and jackets. She also changes the seal a small amount to make it act as a 'key' to get past the smaller barrier seals of the house. She delicately sews these into the hitai-ate of those whom she trusts, and onto leather pendants of those who are not ninja or still in the academy.

Additional notes;

This story begins about three years after Minato and Kushina's death, and Nariko now goes by the alias of Mairi instead of Namikaze. Jiraiya chose it for her, and she did not complain for she believed herself unworthy to use her father's name.

When Nariko was conceived, Kushina still held the Kyuubi inside of her. And for nine months, Nariko went through a few changes due to the influence of Kurama. These influences include heightened senses, an ability for Kurama to speak with her through his mind, which allows for her to speak with his Jinchuuriki as well. She also has received the fox contract through his influence instead of the toad contract. She also is, on occasion, able to pull the Kyuubi's chakra into her own body for her use. However, this process is deadly for her, and painful for Kurama and his jinchuuriki. When her eyes flash red, Kurama is simply warning her to stop, and when her eyes flash violet, she has gone too far.

Only a few people even know about her origins. When she was born, she was completely hidden from all records. This was done for her parents had many enemies who could kidnap her and use her against the leaf. Jiraiya and Sarutobi were told as soon as Kushina knew she was pregnant, and Kakashi found out when he visited his sensei one day when Minato was training with Nariko.

**So that is pretty much all of the information you need before I restart this. I did change a few things, so you might want to read through it, even if you think you already have. **


	2. Chapter 1 V2

**Note; I do not own Naruto, if I did… it would probably suck and be a series of books instead of manga… I cannot draw that well.**

**If this seems too cliché to you, please let me know in a review, along with telling me why you think it is cliché so that I can change a few things around.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Nariko's POV... dream**

"Why…" I say softly, my voice cracking pitifully as I stare at my parents' dead bodies. "Why did you both have to leave me?" I collapsed; tears stinging at my eyes. My mind was still in shock, and I could almost believe that both of them were simply sleeping, except for the fact that I knew better.

I let the tears pour from my eyes as rain began to fall from the skies, joining with my tears and soaking my father's coat that I had wrapped around my shoulders.

I don't remember when the tears finally stopped running from my eyes, or even when the rain slowed to a stop. I simply sat there, my eyes void of emotion as I stared ahead at the destruction that remained.

I faintly remember a hand on my shoulder, shaking me gently, and a voice asking me if I was alright. I couldn't find the strength to tell him that I wasn't. I closed my eyes tightly as his voice brought me back to reality. This, this wasn't a nightmare that I would wake up from. This was reality, sharp as one of my father's special kunai, and it was digging into my heart painfully, shattering it into miniature pieces and scattering them throughout my body.

And then the world simply drifted away from me, and I gladly embraced the quiet, thoughtless darkness.

* * *

**Nariko's POV... present**

I jolted awake, a kunai in my hand as I panted, shaken. After a few moments I lowered the kunai and looked at my alarm clock. It read 4am. I sighed slightly as I pulled myself out of bed, dressing silently as I did so. Naruto would still be asleep at this rate, and I didn't need to wake him.

I glanced at the mask on my bedside table and picked it up in my hands, my fingers tracing over the faint design sadly. A part of me wished that I hadn't decided to join Anbu, but another part of me knew that I never would have been able to get my brother back without it. I would have to deal with my decisions for a little bit longer, at least until I turned fifteen and was able to fully claim custody over him. I just hoped that I would be able to tell him the truth then as well.

I placed the mask over my face and felt the chakra strands form, connecting the mask to my face and preventing it from falling off. I then began my daily rounds of the house, adding chakra to all of my barrier and passage seals in order to keep them running. They already had enough chakra to last for a few months, but I never knew if something would happen and prevent me from maintaining them.

Next I checked the food cupboards and fridge to see if I needed to do any shopping for meals for the week. I made a small list before quickly packing together a lunch for Naruto's day at the academy.

When I was done with all of that, I went out back to our private training field. After shrugging off my sleeveless coat, I began to run through a few of my unique katas. I also ran a few laps as well, once I had faintly increased my gravity seals, at least. With Uzumaki-style healing abilities, it was a very useful technique that allowed me to increase my speed, without completely destroying my body.

By the time I was finished, a faint sheen of sweat coated my tall, lean frame. An alarm clock sounded from inside the house and I made my way back in, grabbing my coat in the process. I quickly started up the stove in order to whip up breakfast while Naruto was getting dressed and ready for his day at the academy.

I heard a faint swoosh from someone breathing and I vanished from my spot in front of the stove to right behind my would-be attacker. "Good morning, Naru-chan," I spoke lyrically, my arms crossed loosely in front of my non-existent chest.

"Darn it!" He exclaimed before turning towards me, "Kitsune-neechan, how close was I this time?"

I grinned behind my mask, "Well, you were _very_ close this time around. If I hadn't heard your breathing, you would have succeeded." I didn't announce that I had also smelled him, mostly since most ninja didn't have my sense of smell. "Now sit down, breakfast is almost ready. Your lunch is on the counter as well." I turned back to the stove, finishing up the eggs, bacon, and toast that I had made.

I piled the food onto Naruto's plate, smiling as he dug in immediately. If there was one thing I had a natural talent for, it was cooking. "So, Naru-chan, did you finish your homework last night?"

My otouto nodded, barely pausing in his eating to respond. "Yes, I finished it. It was really boring though."

I grinned. "You say that about everything in the academy." I grabbed his plate from him as soon as he was done eating. "Now, you'll make sure to listen to your lessons today, right? I'll expect a full recount of what you've learned when I pick you up tonight."

The blonde sighed. "Yes Kitsune-neechan." He muttered as he helped me clear the table before he grabbed his books and lunch.

Together we walked to the academy, with my glaring at the people who glared at my brother. I truly hoped that one day this treatment given to him would stop. But sadly, unless my brother did something truly amazing, the majority of the villagers would never change their views.

I caught sight of a ninja watching us from atop a building and I dipped my head slightly in acknowledgement. He dipped his head slightly in response to me, a slight smile on his face. My mask hid my wide grin, at least some ninja were able to read between the lines and accept the facts.

* * *

"I'll see you later, Naru-chan." I said, ruffling his hair lightly as I did so. "Have fun today!" I called after him as he ran off to get to class on time.

I felt a presence behind me and I turned, nodding at the two who had come up behind me. "Itachi, Sasuke-chan," I said, grinning mischievously behind my mask.

"Good morning Kitsune-san!" Sasuke said to me as he dipped his head politely before saying goodbye to his brother and racing off to join my brother in class.

I then proceeded to leave the academy grounds, Itachi trailing me a little ways back. We both stopped once we had made it back to the estate. I took off my mask as soon as we sat together under the camouflage of the nearby trees. "So how was your last mission?" I asked my boyfriend as we wrapped our hands together.

"It was a success, no casualties as well." He said briefly.

I leaned my head against his shoulder. "That's good," I said, my voice soft as I stared at our intertwined hands, mine covered with fingerless gloves, his roughly calloused.

We sat like that in silence for a while before I got to my feet, a glint in my eyes. "Want to spar?" I asked, releasing my gravity seals as I did so. "Taijutsu only, you can use your Sharingan though, I like the challenge." I smirked before I vanished, reappearing halfway across the small clearing.

I heard my partner sigh as he got to his feet, and then our fight was on. If anyone would have been watching our fight, they would have seen only two blurs, one flickering faster than the other.

* * *

An hour later found both of us lying on opposite sides of the clearing, panting from exertion at our high speed fight. "That was awesome," I said after I finally caught my breath. "Can we call that a tie?"

Itachi laughed; something that I didn't get to hear very often. "Why? We all know that I won."

I growled. "That is definitely not true. You called it at the exact same time that I did. Besides, I took it easy on you."

Another chuckle from across the clearing, "You took it easy on me? Doubtful."

I pushed upwards with my feet, flipping easily onto my hands before flipping again to land steadily on my feet. "Fine, I didn't take it easy on you, okay?" I crossed my arms in front of my chest. "But you were definitely not the winner." My mouth twitched faintly.

"I landed the largest amount of hits," he argued as he remained on the ground.

That was when I shook my head and let loose an all-out grin. "I wouldn't be too sure about that, Itachi. Try getting up."

My partner rolled his eyes before he attempted to get up, only to find that most of his muscles were no longer responding.

I flashed him my signature grin before I healed his overly bruised muscles. "You really should keep track of the milliseconds you don't have me in your eyesight," I advised as I healed him, "I might not have power, but I have the speed that allows me to strike the same areas multiple times over, if you aren't paying enough attention, that is."

I gave him a brief kiss before I reached around him to grab my mask. "Better luck next time," I grinned as I pulled away. "Now, if you don't mind, I need to go retrieve some groceries and prepare for tonight's training session." I paused, my mask still held loosely in my hands. "Hey, you should totally bring Sasuke-chan over tonight; it would be good for both of them to have a new friend and training partner."

"I'll have to talk to my okaa-san, but we'll see."

I grinned. "See you later then," I knew that he would be there; he never stayed away for too long.

* * *

A few hours later found me picking my otouto up from class. "So what'd you learn about today, Naru-chan?"

"We spent the whole day working on chakra control," He wrinkled his nose at this, "but I'm not very good at it."

I chuckled, "and did you pull any pranks today?" I asked, my eyes narrowing slightly.

"None that anyone could pin on me," my otouto mumbled, a faint smile twitching on his lips.

I laughed and ruffled his hair as we walked back home. "Well, Naru-chan, we might be having a few guests over for training and dinner tonight, what do you think about that?"

My brother frowned at my words, "Who are they?"

"Well, one of them is my friend Itachi, and the other is his younger brother Sasuke. Sasuke's in your class, isn't he?"

The blonde crinkled his nose slightly. "Yeah, he's a know-it-all who doesn't talk to anyone, but he didn't do too well at the chakra control exercise either."

I frowned slightly behind my mask. "Well, maybe he's just shy," I said gently. "Have you ever tried to talk to him before?"

He shook his head, "No, the fangirls always yell at me if I get too close to their precious Uchiha."

I chuckled, "Sounds like someone might be jealous." I laughed louder when Naruto began to pout. "Race you home?" I asked him, ruffling his hair slightly before I jogged away slowly, not letting him out of my sight.

He caught up to me easily, and made as if to overtake me when I sped up a little, always keeping just slightly ahead of him, and forcing him to push himself harder to beat me. I would let him win in the end, but I made him faster by doing these sprints, even if he didn't notice it.

When we arrived home, I had him laughing again. He was barely tired, and I grinned at that, it meant that I could finally move to the next level with him.

"Naruto, before you do any warm-ups, I want you to listen to me for a little while." I saw him pause, already half-way to the training grounds before he turned back to me. "I'm going to start teaching you something called, fuuinjutsu, ever heard of it?"

He shook his head, and I rolled my eyes. "Anyhow, I'm going to give you a little example of what fuuinjutsu can do, before giving you some work to do on your own."

I saw that I had his interest and I nodded. I pulled a few sheets of paper out of my weapon's pouch. "You see this paper? This is a special kind of paper, and it requires a special type of ink and design to make it work." I bit my pointer finger and showed him the blood. "It also requires an immense amount of focus and chakra control to create the ink. You see, you need to mix an exact amount of chakra with your blood to make this work." I let a small stream of my chakra flow into the blood on the tip of my finger, and began to draw a design across the paper. "This design is for a simple seal. You'll see these used on basic sealing scrolls, and they do exactly what you would think they'd do, they seal things inside of them, and make them easier to carry or hide." I left the design unfinished so that Naruto would be unable to recreate it if he tried without me. I laid out another sheet of paper and drew a different design on it. "This is a gravity seal, and it'll be easier if I just show you what it can do."

I handed the paper to my brother and moved away from him a few steps. "You see, I use gravity seals to enhance my speed, to make me faster." I lifted my shirt slightly to show my brother the seal that I had placed on my body. "With the seal on, I can only run so fast…" I trail off before I set off in a sprint, allowing my brother to see my top speed without chakra. "Now if I release the flow of chakra to the seal…" I did so and let my brother see again as the seal faded away immediately. "My speed grows immensely depending on the gravitational weight I had the seal set to." I 'vanished' from my position and reappeared next to my brother. "As you can see, I'm quite fast without it." I smiled at his awed look before I slowly reconstructed the flow of chakra to the seal once more, allowing myself to slowly be weighed down again, instead of piling the weight on myself all at once. I had learned that lesson the hard way a long time ago.

"With fuuinjutsu you can also create seals for protection, healing, barriers, explosions, traps, you get the picture." I smiled at him as I took my paper back from him and placed it back in my weapons pouch. "It's a useful skill to have, but it is a very dangerous one to learn. You need to know exactly how to make the ink, what each and every design will do, and you have to be exact about the designs. You cannot make a protection seal out of a sloppy oval when you need a perfect circle. If you do, you might end up with the seal blowing up in your face, or something even worse."

I paused, letting my words sink in for a few moments. "So the first things I am going to teach you will be how to work up your chakra control, and also calligraphy."

"I get the chakra control, but calligraphy?" He asked me, confusion written all over his face.

"Fuuinjutsu is an art, and calligraphy will help you form the specific designs and basic forms that you need to learn." I ruffled his hair, "but we'll work on calligraphy later, let's start with your chakra control."

"Kitsune, thank you for inviting us," Itachi's voice appeared from behind me, and I noticed that Naruto froze, not expecting the ninja to appear behind me, that or wondering why I hadn't sensed him or responded.

And that was when Itachi attacked me and 'I' poofed away, only to reappear behind him. "Nice try, Itachi, but you just attacked a clone, one point for me."

The dark-haired teenager smirked, "I disagree." The Itachi in front of me vanished into what appeared to be a bunch of feathers, and I swore.

"Damn it, I thought we agreed no genjutsu!" I growled as I kicked the air behind me, dusting myself off as I walked away, the genjutsu fading as Itachi picked himself up off the ground. "And next time you want it to work, change your scent; I'd know your smell anywhere."

I shook my head at Naruto's face. "That, dear Naru-chan, would be Itachi. He used to be an arrogant prick who thought himself the best, but I pulled him back down to earth."

Itachi growled. "More like you kept me where I was. Don't forget that you mistook silence for arrogant pride."

"Maa, Itachi, it wasn't the silence, it was the way you walked."

"Pray tell, how did I walk that made me look arrogant?"

"Honestly? I couldn't tell ya." I grinned at Itachi.

"You two argue like an old married couple…" Another voice broke in from the side of the house. "Aniki, how long have you known Kitsune-san?"

I turned to Sasuke, "Ah, Sasuke-chan, he's known me for around four years or so, too bad that I haven't rubbed off much on him, arrogant bas-ack!" My words were cut off when Itachi kicked my legs out from underneath me suddenly, causing me to flip over in order to remain upright.

"Language, Kitsune," He growled at me, rolling his eyes. Itachi turned to the boys, "Anyhow, Kitsune and I have decided to train both of you at the same time. This will be beneficial to both of you as it will give you someone else to spar with, as well as a variety in teachers. Sasuke, this will also mean that you will have someone else to train with when I am away on missions."

I tossed away my silliness and changed my posture into a looser, more serious one. "Do not expect us to go easy on either of you though. If we are going to teach either of you anything, you both will _earn_ it. So you will listen to what we say and you will not complain about our regimens. If you think something is too tough, keep your mouth shut. We both will know if something is too hard for the two of you to complete, and will accommodate for such."

Itachi nodded to me, and I pulled out two pieces of paper, handing one to each of the boys. "Channel your chakra slowly into the paper in your hands. The paper will react to your chakra and tell you what your specific elemental affinities are. If the paper crinkles up, it's lightning; if it ignites and falls to ash, it's fire; if it splits in two, wind; if it gets sopping wet, water; and if it crumbles to dust, earth."

I held another sheet of paper in between two of my fingers, and channeled some chakra into it, showing the boys how it turned sopping wet before splitting in two. "My affinities are air and water, although I am more proficient with fuuton techniques than suiton." I glanced over at my partner. "Itachi over there has an affinity for fire."

The two boys nodded before they both channeled chakra into the pieces of paper. Naruto's immediately did the same as mine had, although his split into quite a few different pieces of faintly wet paper. I nodded, "You have a very large affinity for wind, and a slight affinity for water." I felt eyes on me and fought to keep my muscles relaxed as I realized Itachi's glance.

I turned to Sasuke, whose paper had immediately crinkled up before it ignited and turned to ash. "And you have an equal affinity for lightning and fire. We'll have to find you a different teacher eventually for the Raiton side, but Itachi can teach you quite a few Katon jutsu."

Itachi took his eyes off of me, and I finally was able to fully feel relaxed again. "But first we will begin by working on your chakra control. So today, you will be climbing trees, without your hands." He looked at me and I rolled my eyes.

"Guess I'm doing all the demonstrating today." I growled as I walked to a tree before I put my hands in my pockets and placed my left foot on the tree trunk. There was a very faint shimmering of chakra around my feet as I continued to walk up the tree until I finally walked upside down on an overhanging branch, my coat flipping downwards at my waist. I then released the chakra in my feet and twirled in an intricate flipping pattern before I landed easily on my feet, my hands still in my pocket.

"Just focus chakra onto the bottoms of your feet and start with a run at the tree. Too little chakra and you will simply fall off, too much chakra and you will break the tree." Itachi spoke up. "This exercise will give you the basics of chakra control, which you can use when you wish to run faster, jump higher, punch harder, you should get the idea by now."

"Precise chakra control also helps in ninjutsu simply because it keeps you from using too much chakra to do a jutsu and wasting a boatload instead of using a perfect amount and keeping a lot more in reserve." I added. "Now have at it."

I stood near Itachi while we watched our brothers attack the exercise with gusto. "Think they'll ask us how to do it soon?" I asked him in a quiet voice.

"Probably not immediately, but eventually one of them will cave and ask us to explain some more, and that will cause the other one to cave as well and ask for help. The other option is that the two of them decide to work together to solve the problem and never end up needing our help."

"Possible, but not very probable," I said after a few moments of thought. "Neither of them sees the other as an equal yet, so they won't assist each other, and neither will want to be the first to cave, either."

We sat in silence, watching as the two slowly made progress which they marked with kunai. "So… when's your next mission?"

"I leave in three days; will you truly be alright if you take Sasuke on as well? The two of them together could be quite a handful."

I grinned. "You forget that I'm the queen of pranks, if either of them tries to pull a fast one on me, they'll have another thing coming. Besides, I can easily make a few clones or something to assist if I need extra hands for something. And it isn't like I'm going to need you immediately, chakra control is my specialty."

"You just can't do genjutsu, or even really sense it."

I growled. "Just because I've never got the hang of something doesn't mean that I don't have better control than you. Besides, I've never really needed those skills; ninja don't normally mess with smells in their genjutsu, something that works to my advantage."

"You at least should know how to dissipate them."

"Yes, I know how to release myself from them, most of the time though, I don't have to. My sense of smell allows me to see through most of them at least partially which allows me to knock away the genjutsu easily, or close enough." I exclaimed in an exasperated tone.

"We'll still need to work on that eventually. Just because most people don't mess with smells, doesn't mean that some won't."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I'll just work on that when you finally decide to give in to my speed training." I slugged him lightly on the shoulder before turning back to the boys, both of which were barely making progress. "That's enough for today, time for dinner!"

* * *

During dinner I forced Naruto to talk in depth about everything they had learned in class, something Sasuke found tremendously amusing as Naruto kept mixing things up. I also talked to Sasuke about what he had been learning with his family, and found out that he already knew one Katon jutsu. I could see that Naruto was jealous at learning that, but I would be fixing that soon enough.

I sighed as I cleaned up the dishes, leaving Itachi to continue conversing with the two. Sasuke and Naruto definitely did not see each other as equal. Sasuke seemed to think himself better than Naruto, and Naruto refused to acknowledge Sasuke as such. The next few weeks could prove interesting if I managed to stay sane through their bickering.

* * *

An hour later saw Itachi and Sasuke leaving to go back to their compound where Sasuke would finish his homework and Itachi would prepare for his mission and train for a little bit. It also saw me sitting down at the table with a book, two inkwells, a few brushes, and a large stack of normal paper.

"Naruto, stop running your mouth and sit down," I growled slightly, "You were excited to start learning this, and I'm offering to teach you."

My brother stopped in his tracks and sat down at the table, bouncing lightly as he did so.

"Now, the first thing we are going to do is go through the alphabet using calligraphy." I began to write out five characters and instructed Naruto to watch closely at each stroke. I then opened the book up to one of the first pages and showed him the step-by-step process that went along with each character. "Your homework for tonight is to practice the characters I've shown you. Tomorrow night you will show me your progress and if it is progressed enough for a night, I will give you more."

The jinchuuriki looked down at the idea of more homework. I rolled my eyes lightly.

"Naru-chan, you remember how I showed you how to do Kage Bunshin when you couldn't form a normal bunshin?"

He nodded.

"Well, if you form one kage bunshin, you can have that clone do some of your homework for you, and when you dispel that clone, you will receive its memories. But I will only allow you to make one clone a night to help you with homework, any more than that and I'll dispel them myself. You should be able to manage only producing enough chakra for one or two clones just as well as producing enough to create five or six."

I closed the book and handed it and the stack of paper to Naruto. "Now scat and get your homework done."

The boy nodded and went off to his room where I immediately felt as he tried to summon one clone, and ended up with three. I shook my head before I summoned a clone of my own who immediately went off to dispel two of them. My brother would learn eventually.

* * *

**And that's all for the first rewritten chapter! I like this one a lot better and I hope that you do as well. It's longer than my previous chapters have been, and I believe that it is also of a better quality than before.**

**Next chapter will see Itachi going away on his mission, the boys beginning their rivalry, and Nariko beginning to lose her mind. Please review as that is what I survive on!**


	3. Chapter 2 V2

**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does…**

**And we're back with another chapter!**

* * *

**Three years prior… Nariko's POV**

A week ago I was requested to give up going out on missions and become an anbu guardian. Specifically to give up missions in order to become my brother's new guardian. Since his old guardian had retired from anbu in order to become a jounin-sensei, the position was open, and I was requested to take it up.

I, of course, accepted, and so had spent the last seven days preparing the Namikaze estate for his arrival. Unlike his past guardians, I would be taking him into my own home and staying with him 24/7. Of course, my home was his home anyways, but he didn't need to know that quite yet.

And for the past few hours, I sat on the Yondaime's head while I waited for my brother to arrive at the estate and my new mission to begin. That, of course, was where 'Weasel', my old Anbu captain, found me.

"I hear you have been assigned a new position, good luck with it." He said.

I smiled behind my mask slightly. "And I hear you've been assigned a new trainee, good luck with him." Weasel's new trainee was older than him by at least ten years, and he would probably have to prove his strength to his trainee before the man took him seriously.

"Hn," He said amiably enough before we both settled into a peaceful silence for a few more minutes.

An idea popped into my head, and before I lost my confidence, I spoke up. "Nariko," I blurted out suddenly. "My actual name is Mairi Nariko." I looked down at my hands, not daring to look up at my old teammate.

"Uchiha Itachi," He responded unexpectedly, causing me to turn and stare when I realized that he had removed his mask.

I shakily did the same, giving him a small smile as I did so. "It's nice to formally meet you, Itachi-kun." I said, my smile slowly turning into my trademark mischievous grin.

My dark-haired partner chuckled slightly before he got to his feet. "Well, you might want to get going soon; I doubt your charge will wait for you forever, Nariko-chan." He vanished as soon as he finished speaking, and I was glad he had because it meant that he wouldn't see my tomato-red blush at his words.

"Nariko…chan?" I repeated softly, before I grinned like a deranged schoolgirl. I barely remembered to put my mask back on before I jumped off my father's rendition and sped off towards the estate where I would meet my brother.

* * *

**Current time… Nariko's POV**

I blushed as I awoke from the memory-dream. That had been the first time Itachi and I had truly 'met' and it was also the start of our relationship. Although I was glad when Itachi finally stopped calling me Nariko-chan and simply called me Nariko.

I dressed quickly before I looked at the time, 5am. I had a good hour or two before Naruto woke up this morning, since it was an off-day from the academy. And I had about an hour before Itachi left for his new mission.

I sighed as I left the house, running through the village to the spot he and I had agreed to meet at before he left. I was early, of course, but it wasn't long before Itachi showed up as well, in his full anbu garb.

He sat down beside me, on top of the Yondaime's head, the same place where we had 'met' three years prior. We both took off our masks when we knew the coast was clear, and I laced my fingers with his. We didn't speak at all, just simply sat there while the sun rose slowly over the gates of Konoha.

Neither of us needed to say anything, simply being with each other said everything that we needed to hear. We were close, closer than most people older than us, and that was all either of us needed. We were best friends, and, at the same time, we were more than that.

"Be safe," I finally spoke up as the minutes ticked by.

"You too, Nariko," My partner responded, before he kissed me lightly.

I smiled when we broke apart, not needing anything more than the small exchange. "See you in a month then?"

"Or sooner, if possible."

I nodded, sooner was always better. "I won't worry about you." I said finally, giving him my trademark grin, "so you'd better be back here in a month or there'll be hell to pay."

He chuckled, "Don't I know it." He squeezed my fingers lightly before we both let go. I looked on as he put his mask back on and left, leaving me on top of the Hokage monument.

I remained there for a few moments, watching as the sun finally crested the top of the tree line. I grinned again before I put my mask back on and shunshined away, Naruto would be awake soon, and I would need to make his breakfast.

* * *

This time it was the faint creak of a floorboard that gave him away. "Better luck next time, Naru-chan." I told him, ruffling his hair with one hand while I finished his breakfast with the other. "Nice job camouflaging your scent this time though, almost fooled me."

I heard the sigh and hid a grin behind my mask. "Come on, how come I can paint the Hokage monument in broad daylight and then get away for five hours while wearing _neon orange_ but can't sneak up on you?"

I chuckled at his statement; he was definitely maturing if he could admit that his shade of orange wasn't exactly the best for a ninja. "Well, for one, I am not like the other anbu and ninja that you run away from. They treat you like an idiot and don't expect you to know how to hide, while I, on the other hand, know that you're smarter than you let on and know to keep an eye out for you."

He grinned at my statement. "You keep an eye out for me?"

I shrugged, "More like an ear or a nose, but yep. Can't be taken down by a budding prankster and lose my throne now can I?"

"…Your throne?" He stared at me incredulously.

"Because, my young apprentice, I am the _queen_ of pranks." I let out a light laugh while I filled his plate.

"What kind of pranks have you pulled?" He asked me suspiciously in between bites.

I chuckled evilly as I began to remember some of the many pranks I'd pulled. "Well, I might not have painted the Hokage monument in broad daylight… but when I was younger I did manage to attach a nosebleed to the Sandaime's nose. I would have thought that the hammering would have drawn some notice, but it really didn't until I had finished painting the thing. I once ran into the village disguised under a henge screaming bloody murder before substituting myself with a paint bomb. The looks on the ninjas' faces when they were completely coated in rainbow colored paint was hysterical." I chuckled again when I remembered that I had gotten my father with that prank, seeing his yellow hair dyed purple, green, and orange for a few days after that had been _so_ worth it.

My brother gave me a look. "And you've never been found for any of your pranks?" He asked me seriously, an almost suspicious glint in his eyes.

I grinned foxily behind my mask, "Not a one." That wasn't _completely_ true… my mother had found out about the paint prank, and had, of course, congratulated me on it before proceeding to tell my father that I was stealthier than most of his anbu.

I tossed away the memories sadly, turning to a more serious topic. "Now, why don't you show me how far you've progressed with the calligraphy before we do a little solo training until Sasuke gets here after lunch?"

He nodded, pulling out the paper and ink before beginning to show me what he had accomplished. He had definitely memorized the fifteen characters that I had given him to begin with, but he still needed a little work in perfecting his strokes. I gave him another five characters before I told him to make a clone to go work on the calligraphy.

To my surprise, he managed to summon just one clone instead of multiple like he had for the past few days. "Hm, I think I know someone who will be getting Ichiraku's for dinner tonight." I said with a nod of satisfaction before I walked out to the training field. "Come along Naru-chan!"

I heard his cheer at getting ramen for dinner before he followed me, his sandals not making a sound against the wooden floor.

"I think it's about time for you to learn your first elemental jutsu, don't you?" I questioned out loud before I flashed through a few hand signs and formed a spinning wind wall in front of me. "This technique is called Fuuton: Sensougouheki," I said as I released the jutsu, turning back to face Naruto. "It is not a very powerful jutsu, but it would allow you to deflect flying projectiles, just don't put too much chakra into it or else you might throw yourself backwards, which isn't the point of the jutsu."

I knelt down to his eye level and began to form the hand signs slowly, watching as he copied them without chakra. I made him go through the signs for a while until I was certain that he had them down. "Now I want you to try it out. Don't expect to get it perfect the first time around though, it took me a few tries before I stopped blowing myself away."

Just to be sure, I prepared myself to form chakra strings to pull Naruto out of the wind currents if needed.

For a few hours I watched as my brother slowly mastered the jutsu. Naruto was a natural for jutsu, if only his teachers would speak with him one-on-one and explain things to him visually. He was not a book learner, and I guessed that he never would be, but that didn't make him any less a ninja.

I pulled out a few kunai and flung them at Naruto, in front of him, of course. I attached thin chakra strings to them as well, just in case Naruto didn't form the jutsu fast enough. Although my precautions turned out to be unneeded as the blonde flashed through the hand signs instinctively and my kunai were thrown back at me. I barely managed to catch all of them when they came whirling back at me.

"And now I think it's time for lunch." I smiled as he followed me, no sign that he had been training for hours evident on his face.

I dispelled my clone as soon as I got inside, catching the plate that it had held in its hands. I handed this plate to Naruto and watched as he walked over to the table to eat the sandwich on it. When he was almost done with the sandwich, I flicked his clone and caused it to dispel, grinning as my brother groaned.

He took the last bite of his sandwich before he pulled the ink and paper over to his side of the table and began to write out the characters. The first ten characters he had down perfectly, but the other ten needed work. I gave him another five to work with and watched as he created another clone to help him out.

I heard a knock at the door and sighed, damn Uchihas always being punctual. I paused at that thought, no, not all of them, just most of them. I opened the door to Sasuke and waved him in, thankful that my seals were doing their job and keeping the doors locked to anyone who didn't have the key seal.

"You've eaten?" I asked Sasuke who nodded in response. "Good, than both of you, outside," I waved my hands at the two boys before I followed them outside.

"Continue with the tree-walking exercise," I instructed, not moving when they groaned. "What, you thought you were done? You two have a long way to go until I proclaim you _decent_ enough at this exercise, unless you want me to make it harder for you?"

I grinned when the two ran at their respective trees, taking out a kunai each at the same time. Neither of them had asked me for any tips yet, and I figured that it might be another day or so before either of them caved.

A few hours later saw me proven wrong when the two paused for a few minutes to speak with each other before approaching me. "Yes?" I asked, guessing at what they were coming to speak to me about, a smile playing at my lips.

"Do you have any hints you could give us?" Naruto asked after glancing at Sasuke.

I grinned. "I'm glad that you asked. The second part of this exercise was to see if either of you would try to gather more information to make this easier on yourself." I got to my feet and placed one hand on my hip. "The goal is to _focus_; you want to make sure that you have an even amount of chakra spread across your feet, and not splotches here and there." I walked over to a different tree and turned back to the two boys. I flashed my hands into the sheep hand sign and visibly showed that I was focusing chakra to the bottoms of my feet. Placing one foot on the tree, I walked up it. "If I lose my focus and put too much chakra into certain places, or put too little chakra into certain places, I either break the tree, or fall off." I flipped down to the ground. "Now try again."

I nodded when the two of them closed their eyes and formed the sheep seal, chakra visibly flowing to the bottoms of their feet. When they both had focused their chakra, they ran at their respective trees and I watched as both made it up their trees a little further than they had before. Flipping back down to the ground after making their marks, they tried again and made another few feet of progress. Now that they had learned a little bit more about the exercise, their progress was showing faster and faster. They were figuring it out on their own now.

So I created a clone and left it to watch over the boys while I went to wander around the village on my own. I changed into casual ninja wear and took off my mask while I did so, it wasn't like anyone would recognize me if I did so. No one had ever seen my face before, well, a few had… like the Ichiraku family, my grocer, the other places that I shopped, Itachi, the Hokage, Jiraiya, and Kakashi. It wasn't a very long list, but the list of those who actually knew who I was; well, that list was even shorter.

I stopped at my outfitters to buy another large bunch of sealing paper and a few more kunai for Sasuke and Naruto, when I caught my eye on a gorgeous blade. I knelt in front of it, looking it over carefully when a young girl came over.

"You have a wonderful eye, that blade there is reinforced with chakra when it was made and so it will take a lot to break it. It can also be used with different types of chakra as well, an elemental sword, if you will." She picked it up and handed it to me.

I gently ran a finger over the blade as I looked it over again. "It can be used with Katon jutsu?" I asked softly, a faint grin forming on my face.

She nodded, "It can be used with any type of jutsu, and Katon won't damage the blade at all."

I grinned before I picked up the sheath and sheathed the blade cleanly. "I'll take this as well then." I said as I picked up the other things that I was going to buy. The young girl, Tenten I believed her name to be, rang up the purchases and waved at me when I left.

After that I quickly ran to the grocer's and picked up a few things for dinner before I sped back home and changed into my normal wear and mask before dispelling my clone and joining the boys again.

"That was just a clone?" I could hear their voices now, and I bit back a chuckle as I did. The new kunai were in my hands as I exited the mansion.

"I was quite surprised when neither of you realized that I had left, but since you've now noticed…" I flung the new kunai, pleased when all of them thumped into the boys' respective trees. "Those are for each of you, so don't lose them. We'll be taking a break from chakra control and work on accuracy training for a while."

The two smiled as they grabbed their new kunai, placing them in their weapon's pouches that Itachi and I had given them earlier on for use in training.

* * *

**Three weeks later… Nariko's POV**

I opened my eyes blearily as I turned to my alarm clock, 4am. I bit back a groan, my body had somehow gotten into this strange idea that 4am was a great time to wake up; I never actually used the alarm anymore.

I dressed swiftly and put on my mask, just in case Naruto woke up earlier than normal, highly unlikely, but still possible. I then turned to the piece of paper that a crow had dropped off at my window a few nights ago. _'On my way back to Konoha, should be back in five days. –Weasel'_

I smiled slightly, the note had come close to five days ago, which meant that Itachi should be home within the next two days, something I looked forward to. I glanced over at the sword I had placed on top of my nightstand. I was sure that he would love the new sword, especially since it wouldn't be damaged by his affinity.

Grabbing my twin swords, I went out to the training fields to waste a little time training. I created a clone when I got outside, and then we both were at it. Since I was fighting against myself, I was able to figure out the holes in my defense, and started to fix them as soon as I saw them. There also seemed to be more holes in my defense than normal, I was getting rusty.

An hour later saw me finally dispelling my clone with a well placed attack before I sank to the ground and began to meditate. I easily cleared my mind of all thoughts, before I slowly allowed myself to become a part of the earth. I extended my senses so that I heard everything within a ten meter radius, smelled everything within a twenty meter radius without wind, and felt everything within a five meter radius. These were the skills that had kept me alive for so long, and they were also the only things that allowed me to break through a genjutsu. A person could mess with my sight with a simple genjutsu, my hearing and touch could be messed with on another level, but most did not mess with the sense of smell. It was simply overlooked, something that most people didn't train.

And it was one of the things I trained the most. I sniffed peacefully at the air, instantly forming a picture of scents in my mind. Every tree in my radius, every animal, every plant… It was amazing that something as basic as smell could form such a widely ranged picture, if one knew how to decipher what they picked up.

I ceased my meditating after a while, thoroughly relaxed, for a few hours at least. I raised my gravity seals a small amount before I ran a few laps in order to get used to the new weight placed on my body. Within a few more weeks, I would finally be ready to start figuring out my father's signature jutsu, the Hiraishin. Of course, I would have to start from scratch since I had never actually learned how my father had accomplished it, and I had never memorized the seals that he had used.

It would probably take me a few years to figure out the seals that I would need to create, or recreate if possible, and maybe another few years before I managed to get the same basic effect that the Hiraishin offered.

I heard an alarm go off and sighed, my studying would have to wait.

* * *

I dispelled my clone when I entered the house and took over the cooking of breakfast. It was almost ready, and would be done just in time for Naruto's attack on me. I wondered if he would ever get a bit more creative and try to surprise me at different times, instead of at the same exact time every day.

Like clockwork, my brother's scent came to my nose. From the picture my nose gave me, he was coming up fast, but was making no noise. I felt a faint disturbance in the air brushing against the back of my neck, and I caught Naruto's hand easily, ducking under his other fist at the same time. "Very good, you almost had me that time." I said proudly before I handed him a plate full of food. "Now sit down and eat."

He humphed loudly before he did as I said. "What gave me away this time?" He asked in between bites of his food.

I grinned behind my mask, "Well, you made no sound, but it was the disturbance in the air due to your attack that notified me." I ruffled his hair lightly. "You have successfully blocked one of my senses, now you just need to work on the others."

He frowned, "Are there other ninja who can pick up on things like you can?"

I thought for a moment before I nodded. "Yes, there are actually quite a few ninja out there who have different ways of surviving ambushes and fights. Those in the Inuzuka clan are renowned for their sense of smell; the Hyuuga clan is renowned for being able to see almost 360 degrees around them with their Byakugan; the Aburame clan uses special bugs to tell them of their surroundings, and then there are anomalies like me who train in our senses so that they can do the same."

"You trained to improve your senses?" He asked me, "How?"

I crossed my arms loosely in front of my chest. "Well, I spend about an hour every morning meditating and simply expanding my senses to their limits and trying to pick out everything in the immediate area. I also summon clones while I meditate to go and ensure that what I find is correct." I glanced at the clock on the stove. "Anyhow, we need to get going if you don't want to be late for school again."

He groaned before he grabbed his lunch. "Can we building-run today please?"

I nodded with a proud smile hidden by my mask. "Sure, but I'll be testing you at the same time then."

We both exited the house and started off, my otouto right at my side the entire time. I upped the speed a few times, but he quickly recovered and fixed his own strides to match mine.

* * *

Once I dropped Naruto off, I raced to the gates of Konoha and hid myself in a tree just outside. I kept my awareness of what went on around me even as I delved deeply into my mind, and into the mind connecting to mine.

"_Yo, Kurama, you awake?"_ I asked as soon as I arrived in the shared mindscape. It was a lush green plot of land with a large cave deep inside of it. There were trees all across the area, and small animals could be heard within the forest.

I heard a growl coming from the cave and I rolled my eyes. My mask did not exist in my mindscape. _**"What do you want, Kit?"**_ The owner of the growl spoke, his voice coming from inside of the cave. A large red paw appeared from it soon after, eventually followed by the rest of the Kyuubi's body.

"_To see your pretty face,"_ I called back to him, a mischievous grin on my face as I looked up into his eyes. _"What other reason would I be here, Rama?"_ I slipped into my nickname for the nine-tailed fox hovering above me, my grin widening at his growl.

I suppose that most people would have shit their pants if they had been in my shoes. Since I was not the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki, and since I was in his mind, he could definitely harm me. But… from prior experience, I had determined that he wouldn't harm his kits; especially since that was what he saw me as. Naruto and I were his children, and despite his gruff demeanor towards me every now and then, I knew deep inside of myself that he would never hurt me. His views towards the village were liable to change though since he didn't like humans at all, which, I guess, meant that he didn't see Naruto or I as humans, it was a weird situation…

"_**Do not make me throw you out of here again, Kit."**_ He growled at me as I climbed up one of his legs to recline back on his neck.

"_And here I thought that you were getting lonely and would enjoy some of my company." _I pretended to pout. _"Anyways, what do you think of Naruto's training? Do you think that I'm going at it in the right direction? You would know better than I would since you can hear everything he does and see everything he sees."_

I got another rumbling growl in response to that. _**"Your training of him is fine, he still struggles a little with chakra control, but he's getting the hang of it quickly enough. His calligraphy training is going fine, within a few more weeks you might be starting him on some basic sealing techniques. And as for anything else you could change? He would like to work more on his speed, he looks up to you and wants to eventually surpass you."**_ The fiery fox paused with a rumbling laugh. _**"He's got a ways to go still."**_

I chuckled. _"You and I both know that he will eventually accomplish it. He has his heart set on being Hokage, and I won't be one to stand in his way."_

'_**Watching from the shadows and pushing him forward… just like your mother in that sense,'**_Kurama thought silently to himself. _**"Your man is coming towards the village fast Kit, go meet him."**_ He said out loud to me before he pleasantly shoved me out of his mindscape and back into my own.

'_Always so pleasant there, Rama…' _ I thought to myself as I meditated, instantly picking up on Itachi's scent.

I stayed hidden as the scent swiftly came closer, before passing me as he continued towards the gates. I heard him and his team halt, a faint mumbling told me that he was sending them on ahead of him, before he came back to where I was.

"Welcome home." I said softly as I looked him over, slightly tired, but uninjured. "Was it a success?"

He nodded, taking off his mask with a sigh as he did so. "How were the boys?"

I shrugged as I took my mask off as well. "They were boys. Both of them moved on to water walking while you were gone, and I've sparred with each of them in taijutsu multiple times. Naruto's getting better with the fuuton jutsu I have been teaching him, and I've found a few scrolls for Sasuke to use in basic raiton jutsu. I've helped him in how each jutsu is supposed to perform, and he's learned from there." I sighed, "And now both of them are trying to sneak up on me every day. Naruto does it in the morning, and Sasuke attempts it when I pick him up from the academy, or near the end of our training sessions."

Itachi chuckled, "Seems like you've been busy." He came closer and we shared a small, soft kiss before we separated. "I need to go give the Hokage my report, see you later for training?"

I nodded. "Oh, Sasuke's staying the night tonight, care to join us? You and I can catch up on everything that happened over the month after the boys go to bed?"

He rolled his eyes with a small smile before he shunshined away, his mask back on his face.

I remained where I was for a few more moments before I replaced my mask and sped off to the academy to pick up the boys.

* * *

**That's it for this chapter! I hope you like it a bit more than the last one, it's a little longer, and I think it's of a better quality.**

**Next one should be fun! ^^**

**And I thank you to all of my reviewers; I hope you're reading the rewrites as well! ^^**


	4. Chapter 3 V2

**And here's another chapter for you guys!**

**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto, the only thing I own here is Nariko and her awesomeness.**

* * *

**Nariko's POV**

"Hey boys," I said playfully as I appeared behind them while they were speaking to their friends. "Enjoying yourselves?"

"You're late!" Naruto cried, pointing a finger at me as he whirled around.

I ruffled his hair gently before turning to glance at his friends. "I hope you all will not mind if I steal Naru-chan and Sasuke-chan from you?"

My eyes flickered over the small group of friends. There were three, a fiery-looking boy with fang markings on his cheeks, clearly an Inuzuka; a wider-framed boy munching constantly on food, an Akimichi; a lazy looking boy with intelligent eyes, a Nara. I narrowed my pale eyes, I would need to look out for the Nara, didn't need him drawing too much suspicion to me.

"Not at all," The Nara responded lazily, although his eyes glinted with a spark of knowledge. He was intrigued. "And who might you be?"

"You may call me Kitsune; I'm Naruto's anbu guardian." I dipped my head lightly, "It is a pleasure to meet you all, but I'm afraid that I do not know your names?"

"Nara Shikamaru," The lazy-looking boy supplied, his eyes narrowing slightly. I kept my body loose as he did so.

"Akimichi Chouji," The chubbier boy announced between bites.

The fanged boy grinned at me, "I'm Inuzuka Kiba, and this is Akamaru!" The white dog popped out of his jacket as his name was called. I could see the mischievous spark in the Inuzuka's eyes, no wonder Naruto liked him.

"_You smell nice!"_ The dog yapped at me.

I grinned and bowed my head to Akamaru, "And you are a very intelligent ninken, I appreciate the compliment."

The cute ninken pup gave a confused yip which matched Kiba's face. I was getting looks from my two charges as well, which made me faintly self-aware. I scratched the back of my head in my nervous twitch, ceasing it immediately when the Nara gave me a calculated look. "I grew up around foxes and other canines; I guess I just picked up on the language." I dipped my head again. "Anyways, we must be off," I grabbed Sasuke and Naruto around their waists and ignored their complaints as I flashed away.

* * *

"Your brother's back, Sasuke-chan." I said lightly as I ran across the rooftops, "He'll join us for dinner once he finishes reporting to the Hokage about his mission."

That quieted both boys down for a few moments before they began to ask me countless questions.

I sighed and ignored them for the rest of the time to the house where I summoned a clone to start working on dinner. I had learned from my parents that there was never enough time in a day to take care of everything, unless you had multiples of yourself, and then pretty much anything was possible.

The real me, however, took the boys out back in order to give them some training time before dinner.

I turned to the two boys who were waiting impatiently for me to teach them something new. "Alright you two, since Itachi will be back in time for dinner, I won't be teaching you anything new, but," I held up a finger in order to stave off complaints, "I will be sparring with you. Today you two will work as a team to try and take me down. You both will need to give this your all, and above all you will need to work together."

"But Kitsune-neechan, what if you get hurt?" Naruto asked, a worried look on his face, until Sasuke cuffed the back of his head.

"Baka, she's an Anbu, she won't get hurt by us."

"Just because I'm an Anbu doesn't mean that I shouldn't take this battle seriously. I expect you both to give it your all, and I might get hurt, but that's alright. I heal fast, and I know some medical ninjutsu that I can use if any of us get hurt." I said as I stood in front of them. "Now, I will give you both ten minutes to come up with a plan, and I will not move from this spot until you've made your first move."

The two of them nodded before Sasuke grabbed Naruto's arm and pulled him into the trees. I smirked, with my help in taijutsu; Sasuke could now rival most people with sheer speed and strength. He was progressing faster than Naruto in some aspects, but both of them were doing well. And Itachi had at least taught Sasuke the bare bones of genjutsu, or someone in his clan had. I had helped Naruto learn the subject a little, and he seemed to get it better than I did, which meant that I would have to be on the lookout for some basic genjutsu.

I sighed; I would probably have to be on the lookout for some sort of genjutsu attack on me, something I did not look forward to. I could see through basic ones, but if Sasuke had learned any of the more elaborate ones, I was screwed.

As for ninjutsu? Both boys were naturals in their own parts of that aspect. Sasuke was getting the hang of the few Katon jutsu that Itachi had taught him, along with the few Raiton jutsu that I had helped him with, while Naruto was excelling in the Fuuton jutsu that I taught him. I smiled softly; it wouldn't be long before we had to teach them harder jutsu.

I pulled out a small timer and set it for two hours. "Alright, your ten minutes to plan are up! You now have two hours to show me what you've learned." I called out to the forest, even though I could have faced their chakra signals and kept my voice lower. But where was the fun in telling them that I knew exactly where they were?

Naruto was the first to attack me, something I had guessed easily. My brother was the one to jump into something headfirst and then go pretty much wild. He had gotten better at controlling himself, but I could guess that they utilized his wild side in their planning.

We started with taijutsu, and I kept my speed to his level, allowing myself just enough speed so that I would block all of his blows, in order to test the strength he held behind attacks.

Sasuke jumped out at my back, aiming a fireball at my back. I ducked under Naruto's attacks and quickly formed the hand signs for a wind wall, watching as the swirling air dissipated the fireball before I grabbed Naruto's arm and threw him at Sasuke. The Uchiha caught him, both of them landing in a pile on the ground.

And that was when I knew I'd been caught, because both boys burst into smoke, shadow clones.

I closed my eyes and focused, searching for any signs of chakra. I caught a flash towards my right and I threw myself backwards, landing on my hands and flipping up onto a tree as another fireball whisked past my head. And that was when I heard the chuckle behind me without sensing the chakra signal.

"Hush dobe," Sasuke's whispered voice came from beside the chuckle. Again there was no chakra signature.

I vanished from my spot, reappearing halfway across the clearing, "Release."

The genjutsu faded away just as I heard Naruto curse as he shot over the spot I had just been, landing awkwardly on the ground below.

"Nice try boys, but you need to be quieter than that." I chuckled as I dropped into a fighting stance, one hand behind, and the other held in front. All of my muscles were tightened with anticipation of what the unpredictable duo might do next. I closed my eyes to make it more of a challenge for myself, forcing me to rely solely on my hearing and sense of smell to predict where the two would attack from next.

It wasn't the best way to fight, but by reducing my sight, I also made it harder for them to catch me in a genjutsu, unless Itachi had indeed taught Sasuke one that mixed with all of the senses. I inwardly growled at that thought, the older Uchiha had used those on me quite often, trying to teach me to see through them. It still rarely worked though.

I heard a swish of cloth from my left and I shifted towards it, catching the fist with my right hand and the leg with my left. Another fist shot towards me, but I brought my left elbow up to intercept it. A whisper of grass to my back had me thrusting myself forwards into my first attacker, pushing him underneath me as I vaulted above him. I dropped into a roll when I had ditched both attackers, and landed in a crouched position, one knee on the ground, my other foot tensed and ready to push off if needed.

The bell rang suddenly and I heard two groans of despair as I opened my eyes. I dusted off my pants and turned to look at the two dusty boys. "Great job today!" I told them happily, pleased that they had actually given me a workout.

"But neither of us landed a hit on you." Naruto said sadly.

I shook my head. "No, but you did catch me in a genjutsu, keep me on my toes, and work as a team. If I were someone else who didn't have enhanced hearing or my amount of focus, you probably would have beaten me. I wouldn't have been able to sense that genjutsu if Naruto hadn't giggled, and so you would have had me trapped. Now, if I was a genjutsu master but didn't have great taijutsu skills, I would have gotten around the genjutsu but found myself face to face with two who excelled in taijutsu, something I was weak in. And if I were someone who was adequate at genjutsu, lacked in taijutsu, and excelled in ninjutsu, I would have been limited by how fast I could perform my hand signs while both of you speedy ninja had me at your mercy."

"But you aren't any of those people." Sasuke stated the obvious.

"No, but I could very well have been. All I'm saying is that you should be proud to be at the level you are at now, and thankful that you didn't beat your teacher so soon in your development. If you had, well then I must be very weak and you'd need a new teacher." I flicked both of their foreheads in a very Itachi-like manner, grinning as they rubbed the spots I had flicked.

"Now, learn from this battle and we'll fight again another day to check your progress." I pulled both of them in for a hug before I started towards the house with the two of them under my arms. "Now it's almost time for dinner, so both of you ought to get cleaned up before Itachi gets here."

* * *

A few hours later saw me watching in amusement as the two boys came up with an elaborate plan to surprise attack Itachi when he came from the front door.

Of course, it probably would have helped if Itachi wasn't standing right next to me with an amused look on his face. "What are they trying to accomplish?" He asked me in a low voice, a smirk twitching slightly at the corners of his mouth.

"They're trying to catch you unaware," I responded, barely keeping a laugh back.

"Oh, I see," He says before he summons a clone silently a sends it around to the front where it is attacked by the boys, and just as swiftly dispelled.

The look on the boys' faces when they turned around at my loud laughing was priceless. I almost choked on laughter when Itachi gave me a look as he was attacked by first his brother, and then my own.

The way that they clamored about what all they had learned pulled at a memory that I had long since locked away.

"_Kaachan!" I cried out happily as I ran towards my mother. I slowed significantly as I approached so as not to crush her large stomach. She opened her arms and I hugged her tightly while my sensei walked up at a slower pace. "Kaachan, Jiraiya-sensei taught me all sorts of new jutsu! And I'm faster now, although I'm not as fast as Otousan yet… but I will be one day, dattebane!" I covered my mouth as the word slipped out, and I saw my mother's laughing face. I giggled sheepishly._

"_Where's Touchan?" I asked as I peered around my mother looking for my father._

"_He's at the office right now, why don't you go pay him a visit?" My mother said as she placed a hand on her back to support herself. "I'll stay here and talk to Jiraiya about your trip."_

_I nodded and raced out of our house, practically flying across the rooftops as I tried to go as fast as my dad, trying to get to the office before he really had a chance to notice I was there._

_I zipped through the window and all but collided with my dad who had turned to face the window as he sensed my approach. "Touchan!" I cried happily as he caught me and held me close._

_I was glad that the office was empty since I was technically supposed to still be a secret; my father had too many enemies. _

"_You're back Nariko-chan!" He laughed as he held me tightly. "So when did my little girl learn to run so fast?"_

"_Jiraiya-sensei told me that you could run faster than anyone else and I told him that I wanted to learn, so he helped me get faster!" I giggled as he held me. "Will you help me train now? Jiraiya-sensei says that he needs to take care of a few things before he takes me for another training trip."_

_My father spun me around with another laugh. "I suppose I could teach you a few things while he's away." He put me down for a moment while he made a hand sign, a solid clone appearing next to him. The clone moved to take his spot at his desk before he grabbed me again, using his signature Hiraishin to bring us back home. _

"_**Baka kit, don't randomly space off like that!"**_ I heard Kurama growl in my head before he roughly shoved my attention back to the present, where everyone was staring at me oddly.

"Neechan, are you alright?" Naruto asked me in a slightly worried tone of voice.

I nodded, "Yeah, I guess you two just tired me out today." I said as I ruffled his hair. "Now, who's ready for dinner?"

The two boys instantly sat down, but Itachi gave me a look that told me that he didn't believe my excuse. _'Kami help me there,'_ I growled in my thoughts as I dished up everyone's food.

When everyone was done, Itachi sent the boys out to work on their shuriken throwing while I ate, a look in his eyes telling me that I was not free to leave once I had finished.

"What happened back there?" He asked me, "we were all laughing, and then you suddenly tensed up and stopped."

I shook my head as I replaced my mask. "The way they tackled you, it… brought up memories of my father, specifically a memory of the month before I lost him to the Kyuubi."

Itachi gave me a look, "There are no records of any 'Mairi' dying during the Kyuubi attack," He said solemnly, "In fact, there never was any record of any 'Mairi' living in Konoha at all. I know that you are not a spy since you clearly have history with the Hokage and Jiraiya of the Sannin, but I do know that you are not who you say you are."

I froze, "You've done research on me?" I said in a slightly pained voice.

"I research everyone I meet, Nariko." He told me bluntly before he paused. "You're Naruto's true sister, aren't you?"

I fought to keep myself calm, "What makes you think that?"

"You share facial similarities, you have the same elemental affinities, and you have the same nervous tick of scratching the back of your head while chuckling. Not only that, but I believe you know your relation to him by the way you treat him like a true little brother instead of as a simple charge, you are overprotective of him, and you're teaching him clan arts, something you wouldn't teach a random charge."

I simply sat still, my muscles tensed and frozen at the words that were coming out of his mouth. "What else have you guessed at," I spoke softly, barely allowing him to hear me.

"Your parents," He stated, "There was only one Uzumaki in the village at the time that the Kyuubi was around, and she was a good friend of my mother. I'm guessing that your parents are Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina, due to your resemblance to both of them, and you skill types."

I didn't grace him with a response for a while. "You're too damn smart for your own good, Itachi." I said softly as I pushed back at the memories that threatened to overwhelm my consciousness. "But yes, everything you have said is true. I am Namikaze Nariko, hidden child of Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina, and older sister to Namikaze Naruto, alias Uzumaki Naruto." I finally managed to speak.

"Does…?" Itachi began to ask before I cut him off.

"No, Naruto knows nothing of his origins. He sees me as his older sister, but does not know the truth, and right now is not the time for him to learn of it." I pushed away from the table. "I will tell him eventually, when he is strong enough to not get himself killed with the information." I didn't look at my partner as I walked past him, "And if you truly care for me, Itachi, you won't question my actions."

With that I went out to assist the two boys, Itachi following me out a few moments later.

* * *

"Are the boys asleep?" Itachi asked me, his eyes softer than they were earlier.

I nodded tiredly as I pulled off my mask. "Yes, they are both asleep."

I closed my eyes for a few moments to refocus myself when Itachi suddenly pulled me into his chest. He simply held me for a few moments, the silence comforting. "You can tell me anything, Nariko; you don't have to keep it all to yourself."

He let go after a while before leading me to the couch where I ended up tucked in between his arm and his chest. "You look a lot like both of them," He told me after a few moments. "I met your parents quite a few times when I was a child, and you remind me a great deal of both of them."

"That only makes everything a whole lot harder," I spoke up eventually. "Every time I look in a mirror I see them staring back at me, and every time I look at Naruto… I am reminded once more."

"You should be proud that you bear such resemblance to them, Nariko. They both were heroes of Konoha, and if they raised you even slightly, they were great parents as well." He paused, "Why don't you tell me about them a little? Someone told me once that talking about things can take the sharpness of the pain away."

I thought about it for a while, before I finally caved. "My father, he was amazing. The jutsu that he developed and the seals that he and my mother came up with, they were breathtaking. And even though he was the Hokage and was always busy with paperwork, he always managed to find plenty of time for me. He was full of energy and was always smiling, even despite the amount of hardships that he had faced. My mother called him 'Sunshine' all the time, and he truly was." I smiled sadly at the bittersweet memories. "My mother, on the other hand was a prankster like me. She taught me a lot of different things, and was always there for me, even when I was on my training trips with my sensei."

I felt Itachi twitch lightly underneath me and I attempted a weak foxy grin. "You know about Naruto being a container for the Kyuubi, right?" I asked him softly. He froze beneath me, answering my question easily. "Well, my mother was the jinchuuriki before him, and when I was still just a figment of my parents' imaginations, I was strongly influenced by the Kyuubi's chakra. If you've ever wondered about my enhanced senses, that's your answer." I paused as I gathered my next words. "I also am able to speak with Kurama, that's the Kyuubi, through his own mind. And before you go yelling at me that it's dangerous, Kurama sees Naruto and me as his kits, his children, and refuses to hurt us. But anyway, because I can connect to Kurama's mind, I can also connect to his jinchuuriki's mind through him." I smiled faintly at a few memories that came back to my mind. "When I was away from home, we would speak like that, allowing my parents to know exactly what I was up to, even when I was miles away from them."

"And I lost them both the day Kurama was placed under a genjutsu and forced to attack Konoha after being wrenched from my mother." I cursed the masked man under my breath. "And after that I went on a very long training trip away from Konoha with Jiraiya-sensei while my brother was sent off to an orphanage for a few years."

Itachi was silent for a while after I finished, "And then you came back to Konoha to become an anbu and finally gain the right to watch over your brother as a guardian."

I nodded, "I was too young to claim guardianship over him on my own, and the council would have thrown a fit if I had done so anyways, so I did what I had to do in order to give Naruto the care that he deserves."

"You'd do anything for him, wouldn't you?" Itachi asked.

"Of course," I spoke quietly, "Wouldn't you do the same for Sasuke?"

Itachi nodded, "Yes, I would."

I played with his fingers for a few minutes, enjoying the change in tension of the room. "You know, I actually do slightly feel better," I said eventually, smiling softly when Itachi pulled me closer to him.

"I told you that you would." He said, his voice a testament to a small smile on his face, even though I couldn't see it.

I closed my eyes for a few seconds, "You're lucky, Itachi," I said with in a tired voice, "You don't have to hide behind a mask." I fell asleep shortly after that, not catching his words back to me.

"If only you knew all of my secrets, Nariko," He said gently, touching his lips to my hair before eventually drifting off to sleep for himself.

* * *

**Next morning, Nariko's POV**

A loud banging on my door the next morning woke me up with a start. _'Can't they open the door themselves?'_ I growled angrily as Itachi released me, his eyes alert and curious. _'Oh right, no one can get into this house without my permission… right.'_

"I'm coming! Hold your freakin' ninken!" I snarled as I grabbed my mask and put it on my face before opening the door, standing in front of it with killer intent radiating off of me as I did so. "It had better be super important because I'm pretty sure you just woke half of Konoha with your attempts to break down my door."

I could tell that the three anbu in front of me were fighting to keep calm with the sheer amount of KI that I was shoving directly at them. Heck, I could even feel Itachi twitching lightly behind me.

"We are here for Uchiha Itachi, prime suspect in the Uchiha clan massacre that took place last night." One anbu finally managed to speak up, his voice cracking faintly in the middle of his speech.

His words broke through my pissed-off mood, and shock replaced KI. "What?" I said; my body stiffening at his words.

"A civilian said that they saw someone looking like Uchiha Itachi fleeing the Uchiha compound last night with blood all over his clothes. This morning it was found that everyone in the compound was massacred."

I shook my head, "That's impossible, Itachi was here with me the entire night, we stayed up talking until just a few hours ago when I drifted off." I felt slightly dizzy.

"Despite that, we will need to bring Uchiha Itachi in for questioning." The female anbu spoke up, "Will you come without conflict?" She asked the Uchiha behind me.

"Now wait just a moment, I'm his alibi, I'll need to go as well." I spoke up, finally getting everything back in order in my mind. I would deal with everything else later, mainly finding out what had happened.

The third anbu looked me over for a few moments before nodding stiffly. "Very well, follow us."

I nodded, quickly summoning Kyemi and telling her what was going on while giving her instructions on what to tell the boys about what was going on. She would take care of them until my return; they could fend for themselves until then. On the way out the door I also raised the main barrier, locking Kyemi and the boys in the house while at the same time ensuring that no one else would be able to get in.

And despite taking a minute to take care of all of that, I still managed to catch up with the other anbu and keep up with them without breaking a sweat. I could still smell the fear that the first anbu male felt whenever he looked over and saw me.

* * *

**A little bit of a change this time around with the Uchiha massacre, so be prepared for a few more changes coming up as well!**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter; it should be around the same length as the others, maybe a little shorter, but not by too much.**

**Please review, they're what I live off of!**


	5. Chapter 4 V2

**And here's the fourth chapter! I'm aiming for all of my chapters to be about the same length, albeit I want the newer chapters to eventually start to get larger… but that depends on the content that the chapter holds, ^^;**

**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto, although sometimes I wish I did, until I remember that my drawing sucks, XD**

* * *

**Interrogation, Nariko's POV**

"Ohayo, Hokage-sama," I greeted respectfully as soon as I arrived at the Hokage tower. I had separated from Itachi and the other anbu as soon as we had, mainly so that I could speak privately, or at least mostly privately since gramps had anbu guards in his office.

I saw gramps look up slightly surprised. "Ohayo, Kitsune, what brings you here this morning?"

"Itachi was brought in for questioning about the massacre of his clan, except for the fact that I can prove that he was with me the entire night."

"…" Sarutobi said nothing as he looked at me. "Will you allow a Yamanaka to view your memories?" He asked me as he massaged his temples.

I rolled my eyes from behind my mask. "Of course, as long as they do not delve too deeply," I said; my voice firm in a tone that I knew he would recognize.

He waved his hand at me. "Mouse, please guide Kitsune to interrogation room 'A' and send Yamanaka Yurin down as well."

The requested anbu nodded before signaling me to the door, guiding me through the hallways easily. "Enjoy, Kitsune-san," She whispered quietly to me with a squeeze on my shoulder before she left me in the room alone.

I smiled behind my mask, Mouse and I had been on a few missions together, and I had saved her skin once, earning me a small amount of respect from the older anbu.

I removed my mask as soon as I was in the room, it was unnecessary during interrogations, especially if I were to have someone roaming through my memories of last night.

"_**I'll take care of things if they go too far,"**_ Kurama's voice rumbled deep in my mind.

I sweat dropped, _"I would rather you didn't, Rama, I really don't need any more people getting suspicious, besides, I can take care of myself."_

I felt his anger subside and sighed as I sat down to wait for 'Yamanaka Yurin' to join me for questioning.

When the man finally came in, I raised an eyebrow but said nothing. The man narrowed his eyes under my glare.

"So, are we going to get this show on the road?" I asked him as I kept my body loose, waiting for him to begin.

"Your name is Mairi Nariko, alias Kitsune?" The man asked in a droning voice, ignoring my question.

I held back a sigh, "Yes, Mairi Nariko is my name, Kitsune is my anbu alias, and I am Uchiha Itachi's alibi, since you were going to ask me that next." I held back a grin at his shocked look, not noticing that I could see the list of questions on his clipboard through the reflection of his glasses, interrogators wearing glasses, because that's smart.

He sat down, "You will offer no resistance when I search your mind?" He asked cautiously, obviously someone knew my reputation.

I rolled my eyes, "I will not offer any resistance unless you delve too deeply, in which case I will give you no warning before I kick you out, any mental damages you sustain will not be put on me." I warned him firmly, making sure that he knew not to go any further than was needed, not that I would let him go any further, I knew how to defend myself against Yamanakas, something Rama had taught me a while back.

The man nodded before he performed his hand sign and entered my mind. I dove with him, making sure that he knew that I was there, something that normally didn't happen when one took over another's mind.

I pulled up the needed memories, showing the entire day beginning with when I first ran across Itachi after his successful mission. I skipped over the boys' training because he didn't need to know about my skills, and started up again to just before Itachi appeared beside me and was tackled.

"_What is the meaning of this? How are you controlling what I can see?"_ The Yamanaka asked angrily as I blocked out the sound during my and Itachi's conversation.

"_This is my mind, and I told you, some things are for me to know, and for you to never find out."_ I growled back as I kept the soundless memory going, allowing him to watch the clock in the corner and the shadows that passed around the house from the window. The memory ended with my falling asleep around 2am, and began again with my waking up around 5am. _"Now, is that all you need to see?"_ I asked him politely, watching as he disappeared from my mind.

"I must speak with the Hokage." Yurin announced before he practically fled from the room, taking his clipboard with him.

I rolled my eyes, replaced my mask over my face, and shunshined to the Hokage's office, arriving a full five seconds before the Yamanaka, pleasuring myself with his astonished look.

"Is something the matter, Yamanaka-san?" Gramps asked Yurin tiredly, glancing over at me with a warning look.

The blonde glasses-wearing man nodded. "I would like permission to forcefully search Mairi Nariko's memories and see what she is hiding. She skipped over parts of her memories and was able to completely block out what was being said in areas as well."

"Request denied, Yamanaka-san. Now, was there any sign of genjutsu tampering, or did you find Itachi innocent?"

The Yamanaka grit his teeth for a few moments, glaring at me while I simply glanced at my fingernails. "There was no genjutsu tampering; Itachi was with her the entire night." He stopped talking, but remained in the room.

Gramps sighed again and his eyes flickered to me once more, "Is there something else, Yamanaka-san?"

"Might I ask why Mairi Nariko is allowed to tamper with her memories, no questions asked?"

I rolled my eyes, barely holding back laughter as gramps glared at me for a moment, a warning glare to behave, of course.

"She is allowed to do so because she holds important S-class secrets that are important to this village." The Sandaime waved his hand, "You are dismissed, Yamanaka-san."

The blonde mind-controller glared at me once more before he turned and left, obviously knowing a lost battle when there was one.

"A storm is coming on the near horizon, and yet a silver blossom blooms underneath the moon." I said once the Yamanaka was out of the room. It was a code that Jiraiya, Gramps, and I had come up with a few years ago in case anyone found out my secrets.

The Hokage swore brilliantly before dismissing his two anbu guards and turning his complete attention on me. "This is not getting my paperwork done, Nariko-chan." He growled to me.

I smiled lightly, "Yes well, you really should use shadow clones, they're very helpful." I supplied helpfully. "I personally use them for cooking and other household chores when I don't have time."

I raised an eyebrow as Gramps paled, "Your father used them for paperwork, didn't he?" He asked; his voice faint.

I nodded, "How else would his paperwork piles have been nonexistent? The only times he was ever actually in the office was when he had important meetings with clients." I held back a sad smile, "Anyway, Itachi knows about everything. He guessed at my origins last night, and I told him all of it. I would not have done so if I thought he was a murderer."

The Sandaime swore lightly under his breath, "You sure know how to make my life harder, Nariko-chan," He growled at me with a glare.

I grinned foxily, hiding my true emotions behind it. "Aw, but I thought I was making it easier for you. I mean, shadow clones would give you more time to visit the rest of the village, or give you time for training, or other such things," I waved my hand at my comment, allowing my voice to trail off.

"Itachi will be released momentarily, Nariko," He growled, "Now go and complicate things for someone other than me for a few months."

"Will do," I remarked with a salute before I exited the office, my eyes searching for Itachi, a person who probably wouldn't exactly be feeling the best. They probably wouldn't have gotten a Yamanaka for him, not since he was an elite genjutsu user. I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if they had immediately sent Ibiki in, although the idea did slightly frighten me. Morino Ibiki was one of the few people I actually feared, and my list was rather small.

So I waited outside the office for a while, ignoring the glares the secretary was sending me. She truly hated me, mostly since I had a tendency to use the window to Gramps' office instead of going through her, although, she also hated me due to my closeness to my charge, and my alias. Anything having to do with foxes these days was looked down upon, and I had multiple relations. I held the fox contract, my alias was Kitsune, my charge was the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki, and add that to the fact that no one really knew who I was? Yeah, add me to the list of 'village pariah' with Naruto and Anko, we should have a party sometime.

Those were my thoughts while I waited silently in the waiting room for Itachi to show up. They were pretty amusing thoughts, although I eventually stopped chuckling to myself after I felt how terrified the secretary was becoming. Gramps wouldn't be very happy if he knew that I was scaring his helpers.

And that was around the time that Itachi was brought up, faintly conscious. I growled to myself as I quickly summoned Takai to help me since Kyemi was busy kid-sitting. I didn't even notice the winces around the room when the golden fox appeared beside me. The two anbu supporting Itachi helped me get him settled over the large fox, and I thanked them quietly before I swung myself onto Takai's back as well, the fox flashing out the window by the stairs before easily keeping up a swift pace towards the Namikaze estate.

"Thank you, Takai," I spoke to the fox over the rushing wind, holding his fur loosely in my hands as he ran smoothly over the buildings and ground.

He huffed at me, "It is no problem, Nariko; it is always a pleasure to be of assistance to you." His voice was rough, gravelly almost, but very soothing.

I smirked, he only found it a pleasure since the first time I had accidentally summoned him instead of Kyemi I managed to transform myself into a lithe vixen, apparently a very lovely one at that. Was it sad that I had a summon who flirted with me?

We arrived at the house in record time, mostly since Takai seemed to want to show off his strength and speed to me and go as fast as he possibly could. He waited patiently as I got off of him and released the seal barrier that I had placed around the house, entering the house and immediately leading Takai through the hidden passageways in the walls to my room, where I got Itachi all settled into the bed; he would probably be out of it for a day or so.

After I was done, I thanked Takai and released him, before exiting my room and going off to find Kyemi and the boys.

"Thank you for watching over them, Kyemi," I said sincerely to my summon, placing a hand on one of her back.

The large black vixen turned to me and gave me a pleased look, "Not a problem, _Kitsune_," She responded in a lilting voice. "The boys made things very easy on me by simply playing shogi, although Naruto did shock me once when he created a clone to go off and practice calligraphy."

I grinned behind my mask, "Naruto does that a lot, he studies hard when he's interested in something," I responded before releasing her as well.

When the black vixen disappeared in a puff of smoke, the boys finally looked up from their game of shogi to notice that I was in the room.

"You're back!" Naruto cried out as he quickly set down his shogi piece before running at me. "Kyemi told us that you and Itachi had to go see the Hokage about something important, is everything alright?"

I ruffled his hair slowly, my eyes solely on Sasuke, the boy who was completely ignorant about what had taken place the night before. "No, Naru-chan, everything is not alright." I said softly, "Something… bad happened last night."

I watched as Sasuke got to his feet, a confused look on his face. "So… what happened?"

I said nothing for a few moments before I sent Naruto off to go work on his calligraphy with his clone for a while so that I could talk to Sasuke alone. I pulled him to the couch and sat him down, allowing me to crouch down in front of him.

"Sasuke, last night, someone powerful snuck into the Uchiha compound… and no one survived." I said softly, my voice tired and sympathetic. I had gained relationships with quite a few of Sasuke's family, including his mother Mikoto and his cousin Shisui. "No one knows who it was since he disguised himself as your brother who was proven to have been here talking to me all night."

I watched as Sasuke's innocent face turned to shock, and then to pain. That was when the young seven-year-old boy broke down completely and grabbed me tightly, crying into my shoulder. I held him close, allowing him to grieve for all who were lost. After a while I placed two fingers to his forehead and forced him into unconsciousness with a small amount of my chakra. "It will get better eventually, Sasuke-chan," I murmured softly before I carried the still crying Uchiha into Naruto's room where he would stay until I got the guest room prepared for him.

I closed the door to the room softly, disappearing into one of the passages so that I could remove my mask and run a hand over my drawn face. Too many things were happening too swiftly, and Naruto still was oblivious to the event that had just taken place.

I faintly wished that I did not have to tell him immediately, but… he would eventually find out on his own, and I would rather the information came from me instead of someone else.

"Naruto, I need to talk to you," I said seriously after I had gotten a hold of myself and replaced my mask. The blonde kid in front of me dispelled his clone in surprise when I didn't call him Naru-chan.

"What is it, Kitsune-neechan?" He asked me ignorantly, his face confused at my solemn tone.

So I sat him down and told him everything that had happened, and then had to watch as his shock turned to anger. I eventually managed to calm him down, and saw his anger turn to determination. He showed his maturity then when he told me that he would help out as much as possible and that he would do his best.

I smiled slightly behind my mask as I watched him help me get the guest bedroom ready for Sasuke to move in, there was no way that Itachi or Sasuke would be returning to an abandoned Uchiha compound immediately after having their family murdered, and I wasn't about to have them move into an apartment when I had room for them to stay with Naruto and I.

When the guest bedroom was ready, I moved Sasuke into it, the unconscious child sleeping soundly, despite the tears that slowly continued to trail down his cheeks.

I eventually sent Naruto back to his calligraphy studies while I sent a clone to start working on dinner for just the two of us, since I figured neither Uchiha would wake up anytime soon.

The real me, however, set to work on cleaning up my parents' old room enough so that I could move in there and Itachi could have my room. So while Itachi remained asleep, I cleared out my belongings and moved it all into my new room, forcing back the thoughts that kept reminding me of happier times.

When everything was newly situated, I sat down on the bed with a picture frame in my hand, a picture frame that contained a picture of my parents with me beside them. All three of us had brilliant smiles on our faces, and I even had my hand on a significantly smaller Kyemi.

I smiled softly at the image from behind my mask; that day had been one of the best days of my life.

"_Come on Nariko-chan! We're going to take a picture!" I heard my mother's voice say clearly as she called me to her with a smile. Her long red hair whispered in the faint breeze._

"_Can Kyemi be in it too?" I asked in a higher-pitched voice as I ran towards her with the young black vixen at my side._

_That was when my father grabbed me from behind and twirled me in the air. "Of course she can be, Nari-chan," He said as he slung me over his shoulder and walked over to where mom was standing._

_Jiraiya ended up taking the picture, a broad grin on his face as he did so. Afterwards he ended up saying something to my mother, who ended up chasing him with killer intent rolling off of her in waves. My father placed me on Kyemi's back, the black vixen being just the right size for me to ride. Kyemi and I then proceeded to chase him as he laughed at his sensei's plight._

I came back to earth when I heard Naruto knocking on the door and asking if everything was alright. I smiled sadly as I placed the picture frame back down on the nightstand where it would stay from now on. "Coming, Naru-chan," I called to my otouto as I exited the room. "Is dinner ready?" I asked him before I felt my clone dispel itself and grant me its memories. "I shall take that as a yes."

"When will Sasuke-nii and Itachi-niisan wake up?" He asked before he started to eat, staring down at his plate.

I shrugged. "Honestly I don't know. Itachi could wake up at any time, but I'd give it a day or so, and Sasuke will probably be out for around the same amount of time."

"Will I have to go to school on my own then?" My otouto said, looking rather indecisive.

I watched him carefully, "I believe that it would be in your best interest to do so, you don't want to get behind on your lessons, and if you go you can be the one to help Sasuke catch up when he wakes up. Besides, don't you think it would be good for you to go and tell your friends that Sasuke will be fine?"

He thought about it for a moment, "And you'll make sure that they're okay?"

I nodded, "Yes, I'll keep an eye on both of them when you're at school, alright?"

The blonde nodded with a small smile before he dug into his food at a somewhat slower-than-normal pace.

I smiled softly; things would eventually get better, but… I glanced towards the hallway, only if they let things do so.

* * *

**Nariko's POV, later that night…**

As soon as I had Naruto settled in for the night, I set about checking my seals and adding chakra to the ones that were beginning to run low. That was when a hand dropped on my shoulder.

And as for what happened next? It's the reason why Itachi took to leaving me notes on my nightstand instead of trying to wake me up…

I grabbed the hand and pulled the owner of it over my shoulder, dropping my gravity seals and reappearing above the man with a kunai at his throat milliseconds later. "…Sensei?" I said suddenly when I finally noticed the shaggy white hair of my 'attacker'.

"Yes, Nariko-baka, now put that kunai away and let me up," He growled at me as I had a leg on his arm and a kunai millimeters away from his jugular.

I chuckled sheepishly as I did so, removing my mask in the process; it was unneeded now that everyone was asleep. "You know not to sneak up on me, sensei," I said, an apology written in my eyes.

"Yeah, I would have thought you would have sensed by getting past your seals, obviously not," He growled, hitting me on the back of my head as he did so, "I thought I taught you better than that."

"You did, except for the fact that you did so to my seals so many times before that I no longer register your coming through them," I growled, rubbing the back of my head.

He sighed, "Anyways, go get some rest, I'll take care of things around here for a while,"

I eyed him suspiciously, "Don't try anything or change anything around, I will know," I glared for a few moments, before I walked to my bedroom, leaving him in the living room by himself.

* * *

**Jiraiya's POV**

'_Well, that went well…'_ I thought to myself as I watched my blonde-haired student walk away, reminding me suddenly of a different blonde. _'She's very much like you were at that age, Minato. Although I'd say she gained most of her temper from Kushina…'_

I walked around the main rooms for a while, taking a look at all the seals that Nariko had working around the place. She had hidden them nicely as well, making it so that only another seal master who was looking for the specific seals would find them. She had even made some variations to some of the designs, variations that made the seals more effective, something I would have to take note of.

'_She seems to be doing well…'_ I thought as I finished admiring the multitude of seals surrounding the house. That was when I noticed the calligraphy book on the table, _'and she's beginning to teach Naruto fuuinjutsu?'_ I picked up the book and flipped to a dog-eared page, raising my eyebrows at the pieces of paper stuck in there. Apparently the kid was doing better with the training than I had originally believed. My mouth twitched slightly, it ran in his blood, I guessed.

And that was when I picked up on a chakra spike not too far from the estate and went after it; something about the chakra was eerily familiar to me.

* * *

**Nariko's POV**

I awoke with a small sheen of sweat coating my body, something wasn't right. I instantly swung into action, sending a very small flare of chakra around the house, my seals flaring up to my senses alone. None of them had been touched, but that did nothing to dispel my sense that something was wrong.

I dressed swiftly, grabbing my twin swords from their scroll as I did so. I also quickly did up a few paralysis seals, just in case I needed them. All I'd need to activate them would be a small addition of chakra and then they would work for as long as the chakra in the seals lasted.

Trotting through the hidden passageways, I began to sense a few small chakra sparks. They weren't far away, but I could tell that they weren't exactly trying to hide themselves. _'Trying to draw me out?'_ I thought curiously as I exited the house, raising a hand and activating the full-house barrier seal as soon as I did so. It would last a few hours with the amount of chakra that it currently held within the seals, seals that were hidden inside of the barrier so that others could not penetrate it. I was proud to say that I had created a barrier system in which I was the only one who could activate or deactivate it, unless it ran out of chakra, of course.

The chakra sparks disappeared suddenly, and I knew that the owners of them were now trying to pull off a surprise attack of some sort. Too bad it wouldn't work for them.

I stuck my swords into the ground before quickly flashing through several hand signs, biting my thumb at the end and slamming my hand to the ground in a silent summoning jutsu.

Kyemi and Takai were on either sides of me in an instant. "You summoned us both?" The black vixen asked curiously, "interesting."

Takai, however, simply tossed me a foxy-grin, "Hey, I'm not about to complain," He rasped in his rough voice, sniffing the air as he spoke. "Now Nariko, what did you do to earn such a nice battle party against you?"

I growled at both of them, "I didn't do anything yet, but I'd like to request your assistance in taking them down."

My black companion nudged me gently with her shoulder, "Be wary of their blades, most are poisoned, but it isn't one I recognize."

Takai and I nodded, Kyemi's nose was sharper than the both of ours put together. I pulled my blades from the ground, pouring wind chakra down both of them so that I was ready for nearly any attack.

Kyemi and Takai moved to face different directions and stood right by my back, Kyemi summoning wind chakra around her body, enhancing her claws and fangs along with providing a slight barrier around her coat. Takai, on the other hand, summoned fire chakra around his golden body to do the same.

I smiled grimly; at least I would not be alone in this battle.

Trees erupted around our small group, unmarked ninja surrounding us easily with their larger numbers. All but two drew blades of their own, and from what Kyemi told us, they were most likely poisoned.

I shifted into my fighting stance, my muscles reacting normally to the signals my brain sent them. The enemy attacked first, and Kyemi and I flickered out of sight, using our heightened speeds to our advantage while Takai simply attacked viciously anyone who came into his range.

I appeared behind one attacker, dispatching him easily with a well placed cut before ducking under a joint attack from two enemies and dispatching both of them while dancing away from their poisoned blades. I heard Kyemi snarl and I flattened myself to the ground as she leapt over me, an ebony blur, before I heard her collide with one who would have snuck up on me. With so much blood coating the small clearing already, my nose was out of it, I could no longer rely on it to notify me of an enemy's attack.

I dodged two more attacks, dispatching the attackers as fast as possible before continuing my deadly dance. I had created the style a few years back, making sure that it worked mainly with speed. Quick, slicing attacks, and speedy dodges and flips made my style almost look like a flowing dance, if one's eyes could keep up with the speeds that I traveled at.

A giant fireball came roaring at me from across the clearing, and I was very pleased when Kyemi came to my rescue, blowing it apart with the wind flowing across her back. I broke away from the bladed enemies and raced towards the ninjutsu user, dancing away from several more fire-type projectiles as I did so. I sealed my blades in the process, grabbing a paralysis seal in their stead and forming several half seals at the same time. "Fuuton: Wind wave," I shouted as I released a deep breath, watching as my wave of wind caught the ninjutsu user and tossed him into the air. I released the jutsu and pushed off the ground, flickering into position at the nin's back where I placed my paralysis seal, activating it with a small amount of chakra.

I watched the seal disappear into his clothes and saw him drop to the ground, limp, before I raced off to rejoin the main battle with my summons at my side.

The clearing was a mess of ripped and torn bodies, but still more awaited us. I could see that Kyemi and Takai were slowly suffering from exhaustion, they were not used to being needed for so many attackers, especially not after having already been summoned earlier on in the day.

I unsealed one of my swords again, grabbing a few more paralysis seals as well; I had a feeling that they would be useful.

So my dance started once more, except that I paralyzed more than I killed. Kyemi and Takai followed up after me, dispatching those that could no longer fight, and defending me from any who would attack me from another angle.

Eventually everything fell silent, but Kyemi still stood alert. "There are three more, the one you paralyzed earlier, and two who have not fought at all by the scents I receive," The black vixen panted, her wind barrier slowly flickering in and out of existence as she spoke. "The paralyzed one is no longer paralyzed; one of the attackers knows how to use seals."

Takai snarled, his fire barrier thinning but still going strong. "Let's finish them," He growled angrily.

"Wait, Takai," I panted, exhaustion beginning to set in. I had not slept much within the past two days, and I was beginning to feel it. "If one of them can use fuuinjutsu, you will need to be extra cautious. The one I paralyzed earlier is not the seal user, but he uses Katon ninjutsu to his advantage, I do not know about the other two. Let them show themselves to us first."

I unsealed my second sword before I placed them both in the ground in front of me, grabbing several kunai with exploding tags on them and tossing them at the points Kyemi signaled towards. We all heard the explosions, but they only drew out two attackers, both of them immediately falling into ninjutsu attacks.

'_Neither of them…'_ I thought to myself, nodding to my two summons who immediately went after them. _'Neither of them are seal users, which means…'_ I spun around to counter an attack on my back from the third attacker.

"So you noticed me," My attacker said as he dodged my blades, launching another attack underneath them.

I narrowed my eyes as I changed the directions of my blades to block his new attack. I flared a bit of chakra over my blades to shatter the seals that he attempted to place on them. "It's hard not to notice another user if one is observant enough," I growled as I poofed away, revealing that 'I' had truly been a shadow clone.

I reappeared behind the man, slapping a very advanced paralysis seal on his back as soon as I dispelled my shadow clone. I activated it immediately, watching as all of his muscles froze in place. "Wait there," I growled at him before I went to join Kyemi and Takai in their battle. I had substituted myself with a clone as soon as Kyemi had told me that one of them was a seal user, buying the real me enough time to create the advanced seal. I only hoped that it would hold the user long enough for my summons and I to take care of the other two.

I attacked one of the ninja from behind just as they were about to send an attack at a very exhausted Kyemi. She went off to join her brother in his battle while I quickly finished off the ninjutsu user.

That was when I felt my seal shatter. I spun to see the seal user running straight at me, his speed tripled from when I had first fought him. I caught his first attack on my blades, but I was not quick enough to dodge the kick that he aimed at my side.

I coughed in shock as I was thrust backwards into a nearby tree, sending a large crack up the trunk as I landed. A sharp pain shot through my side, at least two of my ribs were cracked, and… by the way that I was having trouble breathing; one of them must have punctured my lung.

I touched two fingers of my right hand to a spot on my lower left arm, activating the sealing array hidden beneath my red-dyed bandages. I hid many different seals on my arms, and a healing seal was one of those arrays. I winced slightly as I felt my ribs slowly heal themselves, my lung patching itself up immediately.

Dropping into a roll while my sealing array continued to work, I effectively dodged the bladed attack that was sent my way. I broke my roll and pushed off the ground, spinning both blades at my attacker who was fighting to get his arm and blade out of the tree that he had hit.

He ended up blocking my attacks and I pushed away just as swiftly, landing a ways away from him.

Two victorious growls erupted from behind me, signaling that Kyemi and Takai had been victorious in taking down their opponent. The two poofs that accompanied their growls notified me that both were too exhausted to come to my aid, not that I would have allowed them to fight against an advanced fuuinjutsu user anyhow.

"Looks like it's just you and me," I said emotionlessly as I began to circle, my eyes locked on my opponents as he did the same. I was glad at the circling because it gave my healing array time to finish the job, and leave me in perfect condition once more. It also gave me time to allow the seal I had placed on my opponent to fully take effect.

"So it seems," My opponent responded, "but it does not matter, you will not be leaving here alive tonight."

I grinned mischievously, "Are you so sure about that?" I asked as I stopped my movements and pointed both of my blades at a single spot in front of me, pulling his attention to the faint blue line of chakra that streamed from their tips along the ground. A sealing array spread out across the ground

The user in front of me ran at the edge of the array, towards me, and I watched as he bounced backwards from the edge of the array. "I am pleased to introduce you to my barrier seal," I announced, "You should have fun in there for a few hours or…" My voice trailed off as the man in front of me slammed a seal on top of mine, effectively dispelling it. "Or just break yourself free…" I growled as I sealed one of my swords before calling large amounts of whirling chakra to the palm of that hand.

I blocked his attack with my one remained sword, before slamming the Rasengan into the man's chest. It went straight through his chest, but it also gave him the small amount of time to overpower my one arm and slice a deep cut in my side.

He laughed as he slowly died, "You see? I told you that you wouldn't leave here alive tonight." His eyes went dark as I collapsed on the ground, pain shooting through my body like lightning bolts.

Green chakra flickered across my palm as I placed it against my side, panting with the effort that it took to stay awake. _'I… can't die now!'_ I snarled within my mind, forcing myself to keep trying. Naruto still needed me. My chakra failed me after a few moments, and I felt my hand slip from my wound, and I could feel myself slipping away.

"-riko! Damn it gaki!" I faintly heard my sensei's voice shouting at me. I tried to hold on to my senses, tried to pull myself back to him, to tell him that I was just fine, just a little tired, but everything just kept getting further and further away.

"_**KIT!"**_That was odd, why was Rama yelling so loudly? I was going to be just fine, I couldn't die yet, Naruto still needed me…

I felt warm hands pick me up and I wondered why I could barely feel them. "Stay with me kid, don't you dare go to sleep!" Sensei's voice was so muffled; I could barely make out his words.

"_**Hang in there kit, don't you dare let go, keep fighting!"**_ That was so weird, Rama didn't ever sound worried, and why was I supposed to keep fighting? What was I supposed to be fighting? The only thing I wanted to do was get some rest and let my body heal at its own rate.

I felt myself drifting away a little more, everything fading further away from my consciousness. I could barely make out anything that Kurama and Jiraiya were yelling at me, and why were there so many different noises now? Other people were yelling now, but their voices were just a blur now. Just like the lights that were flickering above me, was I flying?

My body was really cold… I just needed some sleep… I felt my eyes roll back in my head, barely hearing Kurama's frantic cries in my mind as I started to slip away into a blissful peace.

"_Na-nariko?" A voice stuttered in my mind. I looked around at the brightness surrounding me, where was I? This wasn't a memory._

_I turned to see my parents staring at me with shock, why were they shocked? I was supposed to be here, wasn't I? I heard my father swear, and that was about the time when I felt a sharp pain in the middle of my chest. I collapsed to the bright ground and grasped at it with a gasp._

_I felt a hand on my shoulder and I looked up into my dad's bright blue, sad eyes. "Everything with be alright, Nariko-chan, you need to go back."_

_Go back to where? I wondered as another shock attacked my chest. My parents' images blurred…_

My pain suddenly tripled as I opened my eyes to a white ceiling. A harsh beeping noise caught my ears, and I immediately wished to be back in that weird dreamscape.

"Someone get him out of here! I don't care who he is, he could be the Hokage himself and I would still kick him out!" Someone shouted over me as more sounds pressed against my ears.

"She's stable!" A different voice shouted from right beside me, causing me to wince again, which set off a series of sharp pains throughout my body which caused me to close my eyes and fight to push against the pain.

"Someone needs to get the damn poison out of her system before she goes under again," The first voice snarled over me before I felt a needle jab into my skin.

I made no noise at the new pain, but was severely grateful when all of my pain faded away and I slipped gratefully into unconsciousness.

* * *

**Jiraiya's POV, starting from his entrance last scene…**

"Nariko! Damn it gaki!" I shouted as I watched my student collapse on the ground, green chakra fading away from her hand as it fell to her side. Her eyes were still open, and I could tell that she was still alive, but from the way her blue-gray eyes were glazing over, I could tell that she was fading pretty fast. "Come on Nariko," I growled as I bent down to pick her up. "Stay with me kid, don't you dare go to sleep!"

I picked up speed as I raced across Konoha cursing the fact that I had never learned any medical ninjutsu. I was thankful that the blonde idiot was still fighting to hold onto her consciousness, even if she was no longer aware of that fact. "Come on kid, your parents would kill me from the afterlife if I let you die now!"

I burst through the hospital doors, calling for doctors that knew how to take care of poisons. A few of them helped me immediately once they realized that I held a kid in my arms. She might be one of the best ninja in Konoha, but at fourteen years old, she was still a kid.

She was taken from my arms and I watched as she finally stopped breathing, forcing one of the medical nin to send small raiton pulses into her chest to restart her heart.

The doctors yelled at me to leave, but I wasn't about to leave her side, not until she was stable. She made no noise when she came back to the land of the living, but I could tell that she was in severe pain. I could see her muscles trying to tense up in order to take away some of the pain, and I was glad when one of the doctors shoved a needle of some sort into her arm and she drifted off.

That was when I finally allowed the doctors to push me from the room, opting at that point to sit outside of the operating room with my head in my hands. Stupid kid, I couldn't lose her too.

* * *

**Kurama's POV, start of last scene…**

I woke up as soon as the knife sliced through my kit's side. I didn't feel the slice, but her shock was what woke me up from my sleep and pulled my conscious mind to connect to hers. Through her mind I could tell that she had been poisoned, and that she wasn't healing fast enough. I felt hopeless as I 'watched' her attempt to heal herself.

I heard her teacher start yelling, but his voice was muffled. _**"KIT!"**_ I shouted frantically, trying to catch her attention and give her something to hold onto. I could barely hear Jiraiya's voice anymore, it was blurring so much. _**"Hang in there kit, don't you dare let go, keep fighting!"**_ I cried out, not even caring that my voice sounded so out of character for me.

She needed to hold on, she was my kit, and I couldn't lose her yet! I continued to shout within her mind, knowing that she could barely hear me anymore.

I felt her die and separate from my mind, something that threw me into shock. I had lost my kit, they had let her die. I felt rage take over my mind before I pushed it down, no, I had another kit that needed me to stay sane; I could not lose my mind, not yet.

That was when I felt her come back, and I felt the joy in knowing that she was not lost to me yet. _**'Welcome back, my kit,'**_I thought happily while I forced myself to stay awake and connected to her mind. I would keep a vigil over her until my other kit awoke and forced me away.

* * *

…**Wow, that ended up longer than I had expected! I hope you enjoy this chapter as I put a _lot _of effort into making it better. Also, if you come across a few moments where there's a slightly _skip_ in my thoughts, that would probably be around the two times when my power went out and I had to frantically rewrite it after my computer managed to save a couple of pages of this story each time.**

**I thought adding in Jiraiya and Kurama's POV's at the end of this chapter would be a good way to get more of what was going on told since Nariko was _completely_ out of it seeing as she was dying and everything…**

**Next chapter you will figure out more about the crazy enemy nin that randomly attacked Nariko, and maybe why Jiraiya found a chakra spark so familiar? My characters haven't yet decided how they want next chapter to play out, so you'll have to deal with what I'm telling you right now…**

**Nariko: **You cannot seriously believe that I _wanted_ to die, can you?

**Lokiva: **Hun, I just take your inspiration and run with it, besides you technically _didn't_ die, well, not for very long anyways…

**Kurama: *growls and prepares to kill***

**Lokiva: ***sweatdrops* I'm just gonna… *flashes away in an orange blur*


	6. Chapter 5 V2

**Last chapter was pretty weird, but I hope I can clear up a few things for you in this one, ^^;**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

* * *

**Nariko's POV… few days later**

The first thing I noticed when I woke up, was that I was not in my house. That was when the memories began to start pouring back into my mind, reminding me of the weird tired feeling that I had received. A picture of my parents popped into my mind as well, but I couldn't remember anything having to do with them.

"_**You're awake? Good."**_ I heard an irritated sigh in my mind and I allowed myself to sink back into the depths of my mind to see what was going on.

"_What happened? I remember you yelling at me in a weird voice, was that actually you?"_ I asked in confusion, Rama never was that worried about me.

I felt him bowl me over, and looked up to look into angry-concerned eyes. _**"Idiot kit,"**_ He snarled at me, but I could tell that he didn't fully feel the anger in his voice, it was just a front for… relief? _**"You **_**died**_** kit, that's what happened."**_ He growled before he walked away from me, grumbling under his breath.

Oh, so that had been what the tired feeling was… I smiled faintly at the fact that Kurama had worried so much about me, _"Thanks, Rama,"_ I said gently before I fled back to my own mind and opened my eyes to look into another set of pissed off eyes.

"Y-yes, sensei?" I managed to stutter out eventually once I had fought past the killer intent that was radiating off of him.

The white haired sannin shocked me then when the anger left his gaze and he simply pulled me close against him, sighing in relief. "Thank Kami that you're okay…" He muttered quietly to himself. He let me go eventually, concern written across his face when I tensed slightly at the pain that wracked my body. "Are you alright?"

I shrugged, forcing myself to ignore the searing pain that went with the motions. "I'm alive, aren't I? I'll be in tip-top shape within a day or so, don't worry so much."

Anger clouded his again and he hit me on the back of my head before stalking out of the room, leaving a small smile on my face. _'I guess I have two new parental figures who worry about me now, mom, dad.'_ I said to whoever would listen, some part of me hoping that my words would actually reach my parents.

I sighed as I relaxed backwards on the hospital bed, falling asleep once more.

* * *

**Nariko's POV, the next day…**

I woke up again to see a peaceful face at my bedside. I smiled lightly when I looked upon Itachi's sleeping face. He looked so innocent that I could almost forget that he had killed many people before.

I slipped out of the bed I was in quietly so that I could change behind the screen provided in the room. I was glad that someone, probably Itachi, had thought to bring me an extra set of clothes, mine probably had to be thrown away with the condition I had left them in.

I held back a whimper when I attempted to pull my shirt over my side, so I pulled it back up in order to take a look at what I had been left with. It was a small cut, but the scar was disgusting to look at. I ran a finger over the feverish skin and barely kept myself standing from the amount of pain that radiated from it. I would need to do something about it, but I doubted I would be able to do anything while I was still at the hospital.

Narrowing my eyes as I stepped out behind the screen, I glared at my boyfriend who pretended to still be asleep. I silently moved to the side of the bed and sat on it. I moved closer to Itachi, keeping my eyes narrowed as I did so. "You've been awake the entire time, haven't you?" I asked, grinning when he opened his eyes to realize my close proximity.

He grinned faintly, "Can you prove it?" He asked me before he stole a small kiss.

"Mm, I'm not sure if I feel like proving it." I responded, "You looked so peaceful asleep." I kissed him again lightly. "Anyways, let's go, I can't stand this place." I said as I vaulted over the bed to open the window.

"Nariko, I don't think you're well enough to…" Itachi began to say until I interrupted him.

"Hush, I'll decided whether I'm well enough to leave or not, besides, hospital food sucks." I said as I hopped onto the window sill, holding back a wince as my side scrunched up in my position. I heard the door open and watched as a doctor stared at me.

"You can't…!"

At that point I had already jumped out the window and was sitting on top of the roof waiting for Itachi to join me, chuckling lightly as I did so.

I felt arms grab me and I glared at the person who now held me bridal style. "You're cruel, Itachi," I said with a pout as my partner trotted across the buildings with me tucked in his arms. That was when I realized that something was missing. "Hey, Itachi? Where's my mask?"

He sighed softly, "back at the estate, but the boys are still asleep so you won't have to worry."

"By the way, who's watching the boys? And did Sasuke wake up?"

Itachi shook his head with another sigh, "Jiraiya is watching the two, and yes, Sasuke woke up. I spoke to him, and now he and Naruto are both putting all of their energy into training. Both of them are working even harder since they were both told that you had been attacked five days ago."

I froze, "Five days ago?"

Itachi nodded, "Yeah, you were out for four days, and then you slept for almost another day."

I groaned, "My poor seals are probably low on chakra now…" I didn't even want to imagine having to fill them all up again, especially not when I needed my chakra to heal.

The dark-eyed Uchiha chuckled dryly, "that's funny, you almost died for good, and you're complaining about your seals."

I glared at him, "hey, don't be dissing my seals, they make very good barriers."

He stayed silent for the rest of the run back to the estate, and when we got through the seals on the door, he barely had time to notice that I had disappeared.

I trotted through the passageways to the master bedroom where I grabbed a mask and a seal that I had made up a while ago. It was another healing array, albeit slightly weaker and more distinct, it would not heal my whole body like my implanted seal would, but it would heal specific areas, and it could be used on different people as well. I placed it to my scar, gritting my teeth as I activated it, watching as it seemed to soak into my skin, leaving a slight chakra trace that would only be found if someone were to look for it.

That was when Itachi barged into my room to find me putting my mask on, everything else in their correct places. "So where's Jiraiya?" I asked as soon as I had my mask in its correct position.

"In the living room," Itachi said, suspicion written faintly on his face.

* * *

I tapped my sensei's shoulder after I had snuck up behind him. When he turned, I punched him in the face and watched as he flew into one of the reinforced walls.

"What the hell was that for?" He growled at me, picking himself up while rubbing his sore cheek.

I shook my hand, "You have a hard face…" I complained lightly, "but that was for _taking care of things_ the other night, and for slapping me upside the head yesterday." I looked down at my throbbing hand, "You _really_ have a hard face."

"N-neechan?" I heard Naruto's bewildered voice and I turned towards my brother, only to get attacked by him, and then by Sasuke. Both of them held me tightly, but Sasuke's arm tightened around my scar, causing me to force my muscles to remain relaxed while I grit my teeth against the pain, thankful that my unkempt hair would hide the tensing muscles from Itachi and my sensei.

"Hiya boys," I said after I finally managed to remove both boys from my body, I ruffled their hair in amusement. "You guys miss me?"

I saw both boys glare at me and I almost took a step back. Their glares didn't last very long though and they started to 'yell' at me about how I wasn't supposed to end up in the hospital and that I should be kicked out of anbu for being idiotic, and a ton of other things that I eventually began to tune out.

"I'll take that as a yes," I muttered under my breath as I pushed both of them towards Itachi, "Don't you have some training to do? I need to check up on my seals."

Itachi sent me a look before he eventually followed the two boys outside for some training.

I turned to start taking care of my seals, only to find my sensei standing in my way, a serious look on his face. I froze in surprise and then collapsed inward on myself when he poked my side. I refused to cry out in pain, but I did pant a little as I forced the pain away, Jiraiya helping me back to my feet.

"Damn it Nariko, you should still be in the hospital right now!" He growled at me, his voice low.

I glared at him, my mask having fallen off when I fell. "And what good would they have done me? You and I both know that they healed me to the best of their ability and that the only thing they could have done was to give me drugs and keep me unconscious and unaware of the pain for a while." I growled at him, panting through the fever that was beginning to take over my body. "Besides, I'm safer here than I am at the hospital, once I add a bit of chakra to my seals they'll hold strong for a couple of days while I recover." I grabbed my mask and replaced it over my face.

I pushed past him, ignoring the pain, and began to add sparks of chakra to all of my seals, giving them just enough to last a few days; I would need to start adding more chakra to them daily soon. I also redid my barrier seal to make it completely inaccessible from the outside unless I was the one who released it. When my sensei asked me about why I was doing so, I told him about how there was an advanced sealing user with the ninja, and I wasn't about to allow another fuuinjutsu user get past my defenses and leave the boys wide open.

After I had done that, he forced me to bed, threatening to poke me again if I didn't move fast enough for him.

* * *

**Jiraiya's POV**

What was it with all of my students being idiots when it came to pain? Minato had rarely ever shown that he was in pain, and his daughter took it to another level. With her, you could never tell if she was in pain, because she was simply that good at hiding it. For her to tense her neck muscles or collapse because of pain, that was unheard of with her, and I knew that she was in severe pain.

As soon as I sent her to bed, I began drawing up a new healing array, taking basics from Minato's original design and from Nariko's revamped ones, along with adding my own personal touch to the seal. It wasn't flawless, but… I hoped that it would do just enough for Nariko.

Once I was certain that Nariko would not awake from her slumber, I placed the seal on her stomach, watching as she tensed up even in sleep when I touched it. I activated the seal with a small flash of my chakra, and then walked away, hoping that it would do its job.

* * *

"Is Nariko alright?" I looked up from the table to see Itachi standing in front of me, arms crossed over his chest. I could see the worry in his eyes but I did not miss the use of her true name, or how he had acted when I had told him what happened, not that he could really miss the large amount of blood and bodies that had coated the area behind the mansion.

I narrowed my eyes slightly at him, "She's fine, although she's resting right now."

He sighed in relief, something else that I picked up on. "Good, I was wondering when she would stop faking being alright and rest."

So he knew about her antics towards pain as well? Interesting. "How much do you know about my student?" I asked the Uchiha, my face and voice serious.

"Enough," He responded cryptically, his eyes narrowing in a calculating manner. "How much do you know about her?"

Inwardly I laughed at the boy's guts, but outwardly I kept my face straight. "I know everything there is to know about Nariko, I practically raised her after her parents died."

Itachi nodded before he sat down across from me at the table. "I guessed at most of it, but she told me everything after I told her my guesses."

"So you know that she's really…" The gaki interrupted me at that point.

"That she's really Namikaze Nariko? Yeah, I also know that she has some sort of connection with the Kyuubi who she calls Kurama, and that Naruto is her biological brother." He paused for a moment, his eyes never flickering from mine. "So did the people from five days ago realize the same things that I did, or what were they after?"

I sighed and put away my ink and paper, my new seals would have to wait a while. "I do not know what all they know, but they were after Nariko. From the last moments of the battle that I was able to see, they wanted her dead, out of the picture, and were willing to give their lives to do it. They even had an advanced fuuinjutsu user; something that is quite rare since the sealing arts were mostly an Uzumaki art, rarely anyone outside of the clan was ever taught how to use the seals."

The Uchiha in front of me did not blink. "If they wanted her dead, than there are a few possibilities as to why," He spoke, and I briefly wondered if he was talking to me, or if he were talking to himself. "One, they found out who she was and wanted her dead in order to get rid of the risk of having another Minato or Kushina running around, but that does not seem very likely since she does not show herself very often. Two, they were after Naruto which means that they originated in Konoha, or have someone inside Konoha to get their information, slightly more likely. And three, they knew that Sasuke and I were here and wanted her out of the picture in order to get past the seals and so get to us who were hidden inside."

I nodded at his options, "but those aren't all of the possibilities, they are all of the _likely_ ones, but not all of them." I announced. "Nariko could very well have just made herself an enemy over the years, one who simply wants her dead, and none of you even matter."

"I can not see how she could have made such a powerful enemy when barely anyone actually knows who she is, let alone where she lives."

I placed a hand under my chin, thinking, "Nothing adds up fully…" I growled to myself. "First the Uchiha massacre, then the attack on Nariko, and now everything is quiet and nothing is happening. By now the enemy should know that their attempt on Nariko's life was a failure and have tried again when she was weak and in the hospital."

"Unless they were only trying to prove a point?" Itachi piped in, reminding me that he was there. "Prove a point that they could attack her and get away with it?"

I shook my head vigorously, "No, no, that's not it. If that was the plan, they would have made some attempt to get away; none of them did so…" I calculated things out in my head, "Unless they had another person who was watching the battle, watching everything that happened and finding ways to get around them?"

"That could be why there was a fuuinjutsu user among the attackers!" Itachi spoke up, his eyes going out of focus as he caught onto a thought. "If someone were watching the fight, unnoticed, he or she could figure out how Nariko countered certain attacks, and how they could counter her counters, and her seals. Maybe this was just a test run, a way to test how effective Nariko is against a certain number of specific leveled nin, and the true battle hasn't even started yet."

That… would truly suck. "We'll need to keep an eye on her then to make sure that when it does happen, we are ready for it." I said after a while. These bastards were targeting my student, and I was pissed.

* * *

**Nariko's POV… next day**

I woke up, feeling somewhat odd, but it was a good odd, I just couldn't figure out what it was. That was when memories of the day before came back to me, somewhat hazy due to my fever-induced daze. I touched my scar gingerly, surprised when it did not pain me as much as it had done the day before.

As I got up, I also felt something alien on my body, and I ended up finding a half-used healing array on my stomach. It was a slow-acting seal, gradually healing things over time rather than healing immediately over a minute like my seal did. I smiled lightly at the fact that my sensei had done this for me, and I was once again thankful for my grandfatherly figure.

The scar still stung severely, but compared to the mind-numbing pain it had offered me yesterday, it was Kami-sent. I picked up my mask and walked slowly out of my room, still slightly dizzy.

I entered the dining room to find my sensei designing a new seal of some sort. "What's this one going to be for?" I asked after I had successfully snuck up behind him and looked at the half-designed array.

He didn't flinch at all, just continued working on his design. "It's a new offensive seal; this one will poison an opponent, provided it works successfully."

I let my eyes run over the current design and whistled, "You're putting a lot into it, deadly poison then?"

"Incurable," Jiraiya said as he continued to work.

I watched him for a while before I decided to do my rounds of adding chakra to my seals. I didn't add too much to any of them since I knew that I would need my chakra in order to finish getting rid of the poison's after affects. That was when I realized that I had forgotten to thank him for the seal he had given me.

So I went back to the dining room to thank him only to find him grinning widely at the finished seal in front of him. So, thanks forgotten, I ran over and studied the array, my eyes flickering back and forth over all the different components.

"Can we try it out?" I asked, my eyes pleading behind my mask.

My sensei looked at me oddly, "You want to try out a seal with an incurable poison… come on, let's go!" He grinned widely again before practically dragging me outside.

I created a clone, suddenly eternally thankful to the person who had created the shadow clone jutsu because it was simply perfect for testing out seals. My sensei quickly did up the design a second time, this time using a chakra and blood mixture for the ink, before he placed and activated the seal on my clone.

He leapt away after the seal was activated, and I watched as the seal sunk into my clone's body, which caused it to shudder before it poofed away. "I would say that it works quite successfully," I said, nodding sincerely, a wide grin hidden behind my mask.

"Of course it works," he scoffed at me, "It was made by none other than Jiraiya, the Legendary Toad Sage!"

"You're full of yourself, Jiraiya-jiji!" I called out as I turned to go back into the house, only to find Itachi staring at me oddly. "Morning, Itachi!" I announced lyrically as I walked towards him. "What's up?"

"You just got back from the hospital yesterday, and already you're testing out poisonous seals on your clones, what receptors are not working in your mind?" He said in his normal tone of voice.

I grinned widely, "Itachi, you have never seen me with a new seal; it's alright that you're confused." This suddenly reminded me of something else, "Hey, Jiraiya-jiji! Thanks for the seal!" I called out to him before turning away, not noticing how his face lit up at the fact that his seal must have been working.

Itachi mumbled something about fuuinjutsu users being crazed in the head and I smacked his shoulder. "Hey! Don't diss something before you've tried it!"

"Will do…" He muttered, rubbing his shoulder lightly. What can I say, I could hit hard when I wanted to.

* * *

**Someone's POV… … watching?**

"So she's still alive," I said while I watched the commotion through the eyes of an animal, specifically the eyes of a hawk who had recently decided to nest in the immediate area around the Namikaze estate. I had seen the recent battle through the hawk's eyes and had seen the fuuinjutsu mistress fall to my servant's poisoned blades. The fuuinjutsu master, Jiraiya, had found her and apparently had saved her from what had appeared to be her demise.

It was only a slight set-back in my plans, but not a large enough one to cause me concern. I would eventually be the only fuuinjutsu master left alive, and no one, not even the Uzumaki heiress, would stop me.

* * *

**Nariko's POV**

The hair on the back of my neck began to stand on end and I turned around, certain that someone was watching me. My left hand subconsciously went to my scar while my right went towards a kunai at my waist.

My mind did not register the looks that Itachi or Jiraiya were now giving me, only the fact that someone was watching me and I could not figure out where they were hiding. There were no chakra signals around except for mine, Itachi's, Jiraiya's, and the boys' inside. There were no sounds or scents out of the ordinary either, and my eyes could see no motion in the surrounding forest.

I eventually let myself relax, the feeling disappearing after a few minutes. I ignored Itachi and Jiraiya who were watching me warily and entered the house when an alarm clock went off.

* * *

"Come on boys, you can't be late two days in a row!" I growled at the boys who had apparently been late to the academy the day before when Jiraiya had offered to walk them there.

"We're coming, we're coming!" Naruto exclaimed as he rolled his eyes, easily keeping pace with me while Sasuke was struggling slightly. Itachi remained by his brother's side, silent.

I smiled lightly, if only I was allowed to show off how fast I could really run.

When we dropped the boys off at the academy I saw a few students staring at me. "Somehow I get the feeling that my defeating a large number of enemy nin got leaked…" I remarked quietly to Itachi as I gave Naruto a gentle shove towards the school after handing him his lunch.

"You didn't really believe that Naruto would keep his mouth shut after finding out that you pretty much single handedly took down around thirty nin in a night, did you?" He responded, his mouth twitching slightly in amusement.

"Was it thirty? I wasn't counting…" I sighed.

"I would have been surprised if you had counted," Itachi said as we both turned around to leave the grounds.

I shook my head before I stopped to whirl around and grab the hand of an anbu who had been about to grab my shoulder. "My apologies, Cat-san," I said as I released her hand and dipped my head, "I have been slightly jumpy lately."

"As most would be," The dark-haired anbu responded, "The Hokage requests your presence immediately. He asks that you use the door this time," I heard her smile beneath her mask.

I grinned beneath mine, "I shall go immediately then, but no promises on using the door." I nodded to her, watching as she shunshined away before turning to Itachi. "I shall see you later then, would you mind grabbing some groceries for dinner while I'm gone?"

He sighed and nodded, so I pushed off the ground and raced away, a blur of gold and red as I sped across roof tops towards Jiji's office.

And as soon as I had arrived, I did exactly as he had expected me to do; I entered through the window and consequently ended up dodging both of his anbu guards, standing on top of the inevitable dog pile that ended up.

"Rat, Badger, she is fine," Gramps sighed, glaring at his window. "Would you use the door if I kept the window locked?"

The two anbu grumbled something before vanishing, probably remaining outside of the door or something. I removed my mask and grinned widely, "You know I'd find a way to bypass the glass," My eyes glazed over for a few moments, "Mm, just think, a seal that allows the user to pass through solid objects…" I thought for a while, not realizing that the Hokage was trying to get my attention. "What? Oh, sorry…" I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment, chuckling slightly at the same time.

"Nariko, get a hold on yourself," Jiji growled at me as he pushed his paperwork aside to his clone. His desk was quite a bit cleaner ever since he had started using a clone to assist him with the work. "Anyway, I called you here to get your report on the scuffle that occurred six days ago."

"My… report… right," I said, sighing softly. "I have a feeling simply saying that I was attacked by thirty enemy nin and nearly died isn't a good enough report, is it?" At his glare I sighed again. "Do I have to write one out?" He nodded. "Is it alright if I get it to you tomorrow?" I smiled sheepishly as I asked. He narrowed his eyes at me, "You'd better give me a report better than Itachi's then."

I almost fell to the floor at that, "But… Itachi writes _novels_ for his reports! There simply wasn't enough happening to do that!"

"Do it anyways, Nariko, now go and finish that report!" He growled at me, pointing to the open window with another glare.

I sighed, replaced my mask, and then leapt through the window, disappearing in the middle of my somersault.

* * *

"You didn't write your report on time, did you?" Itachi asked as he stared over my shoulder, reading what I was writing with a creepy sort of interest.

I grumbled something about irritating boyfriends and their freaky long reports and heard him smile. "This is all your fault, Itachi," I growled at him as I continued to write in my flowery script.

"How could it be my fault?" He asked, pretending to be affronted.

I shot him a glare, "If you didn't write such long-ass reports I wouldn't be in this situation." I turned my glare onto the paper in front of me, "Anyways shouldn't he be happy to have my report in a day late instead of a week? Kakashi never turns his reports in on time and he doesn't ever have to write novels…"

"Probably because the Hokage knows that if he tried to punish Kakashi on his tardiness that the report would end up even later than normal. With you he knows that you'll get things in on time, and that you'll do anything he tells you, provided it isn't to use the door."

"Doors are overrated…" I growled as I continued my report from the time that I had placed the fuuinjutsu inside of a barrier.

Itachi whistled, "You put the guy in one of your barriers and he still got out?"

"I did a lot of things to him and he broke past every last one of them…" I said in a slightly pained voice, "I threw some of my best seals at him too."

"Looks like someone needs to hit the books again," Itachi remarked bluntly.

I glared at him again, "At my level, there _are_ no books, a fuuinjutsu master must strike out on their own or study with another master. I already know all of the basic and advanced sealing components, and now must make up my own signature components and combinations." I undid the bandages around my left arm and removed my glove, showing off the seals that riddled my fingers and lower arm. "All of these seals are my own designs."

I pointed at the one that was severely faded, "This one here is a fast-acting healing array that I used in the middle of the battle after one of my ribs punctured my lung," I pointed to my entire hand which was covered in 'ink' "and this array is the key to all of my seals around the house, including the barrier that I can raise around the house." I placed my hand on a nearby wall and let Itachi watch as the rest of the array spread out from my hand onto the wall. "This key allows me to activate or deactivate any and all of the seals around the house, and whatever command they are left on if I am injured or killed is the command they will remain on until they run out of chakra and deactivate themselves." I removed my hand and the glowing array disappeared, the 'ink' flowing back onto my hand in a spiraling pattern. I redid the bandages on my hand and replaced my fingerless glove as well.

"And yet, despite the seals that I have created, I could not keep another user from breaking free of one of my strongest barriers or paralysis seals." I sat down again and started to write again angrily, my flowery script turning fiery.

"I did not mean to upset you, Nariko," Itachi said to me, his voice sincere.

I sighed, "I know you didn't but… that fuuinjutsu user, he knew nothing of what he was doing. I could see it in his eyes; he was… a pawn of some sort, with knowledge beyond his mind."

My partner seemed upset at that statement, "Almost as if someone else were controlling his movements?"

I nodded, not looking up from the paper and ink in front of me as I continued writing up my report. "Exactly like that, why, do you know something about it?"

"Yeah, years ago an Uchiha created a jutsu that allowed the user to take over someone's body, without losing control of his own. With the jutsu he could control several different bodies without moving a finger of his own, but he was limited by the skills of those he took control of. If he took control of someone with a very small amount of chakra, he would be limited the chakra that person held, but the same can be said if he took control of someone with a very large reserve of chakra."

I set aside my paper again and turned to Itachi, "So you're telling me that if this person had just enough chakra to take control of one person, and that person had extremely large chakra reserves, he would be able to force them to use their chakra even though he doesn't have anywhere near the chakra amount?"

Itachi nodded, "And he could force them to use abilities like fuuinjutsu if he knew enough about it. He cannot use any of the controlled person's jutsu or skills since the jutsu does not take over the mind, but the body. A person being controlled is fully conscious of their body moving against them, but can do nothing to stop it."

I growled in fury at the thought of my control being wrenched from me by an unknown person. "We'll need to research more about that jutsu, Itachi, everything inevitably has a weakness; we just need to find it." I turned back to my report and made sure to add Itachi's ideas about the forbidden jutsu, as well as a request to study the jutsu to find any weaknesses. I doubted that I would be given the access, but… it wouldn't hurt to try.

* * *

**That's all for this chapter, folks! I'm sorry if you're a little confused at the end there, but it actually is pretty important…**

**The jutsu is a kinjutsu technique, aka, forbidden. It was created by an Uchiha who had managed to get to the Mangekyou Sharingan, I will leave his name out of here for mystery's sake. Anyhow, this Uchiha found a way to possess a person's body, while still having full awareness over his own body. So, kind of like the 'Kinjutsu: Edo Tensei' except for the fact that the people being possessed are not deceased.**

**Name;**

**Kinjutsu: Body Possession**

**What it does;**

**Possesses another living person's (or animal's) body. Allows the user to fight battles from afar without using any of his or her own strength. Limited to the possessed person's skills in chakra, chakra control, and taijutsu readiness. If a person who has done no taijutsu training is possessed, they're skills will not increase. Ninjutsu and genjutsu knowledge rely solely on the user of the jutsu since it is not the mind that is possessed.**

**Strengths;**

**-Keeps the user from being hurt at all, if a possessed person dies, control is simply lost.**

**-Can be used against anyone, strong or weak**

**Weaknesses;**

**-Limited by mental/physical power, so, similar to the way Sakura pushed Ino out of her mind, a person can retake control of their body through sheer will. Having a bijuu also helps since most bijuu will reject forceful control, and are strong enough to do so.**

**-Any other weaknesses will appear later as needed within the plotline.**


	7. Chapter 6 V2

**Here's chapter #6!**

**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto, but I do own Nariko**

**We… are going to skip a few years within the next few chapters since not much goes on until Sasuke and Naruto graduate… but the five-year skip will not happen all at once, don't worry about that.**

* * *

**Nariko's POV, year before Kyuubi attack**

**Flashback no jutsu, begin**

"Hey, Kaachan, what's this seal going to be for?" I asked as I peered over her shoulder at the seal she was working on.

She didn't look away from her work as she answered, "Well, Nari-chan, this seal is a type of barrier seal, so far though it hasn't been doing what I want it to do…" She sighed as she looked over the renewed design. "I've been working on it for a while, but there's always something incomplete about the result…"

I looked over it with my young six-year-old eyes. "One day I'll be able to help you finish seals, won't I?"

She looked away from the design then to grab me from my vantage point. "Of course you will, my darling, maybe you'll be even better than your father and I!"

My blue-gray eyes brightened at her words, "You think so?" I asked innocently with a large smile. "I've gotta go practice then!" I heard her chuckle as I ran off back to the basic fuuinjutsu scrolls that I had been given for my birthday. Jiraiya-jiji had taught me all he could about calligraphy and when he told my parents they gave me the scrolls so that I could start learning how to be just like them.

But I wasn't allowed to start making actual ink yet since I was just supposed to practice the basic components and designs on my own. I needed to be supervised if I wanted to try anything real.

**Flashback no jutsu, kai!**

* * *

**Nariko's POV, one year after last chapter**

I pushed my chair away from the table as I held up my redesigned seal, looking it over with a proud smile. _'I finished it just for you, Kaachan,'_ I thought to myself as my eyes ran over the new barrier array that I had created. She had never managed to finish this seal, but… since I had inherited her scrolls on the Uzumaki techniques and what she had been working on, I had made it my goal to finish the design in her stead.

I felt a breath of air on the back of my neck and I turned to take in my brother who was looking over my shoulder at the design, "What's that one supposed to do?" He asked me curiously, sounding so much like my younger self that it hurt.

"Well, Naru-chan," I said through my mask, "This is a new barrier seal, want to test it out?"

He nodded; eyes interested and bright.

I grinned behind the anbu mask and practically dragged him outside behind me. "Now, don't you dare think that you can try this out on your own," I said firmly to him before I pulled out a sheet of paper and pricked a point on my finger, mixing my chakra with the blood that poured out as I redrew the seal's array with the special ink. Once I had finished I activated the barrier seal, quite pleased by how it appeared right in front of me, translucent turquoise in color.

Without turning to look at Naruto's expression I created a shadow clone which I then had try to go through the barrier, and found that she couldn't. Not only that, but electricity shot along the sides of the barrier and caused her to dissipate into a puff of smoke. I deactivated it, created another shadow clone, and stuck the activated seal to her back, jumping away as the barrier erupted around her, sealing her in.

When she attempted to touch the seal in order to remove it, the same electricity trick occurred.

I turned to Naruto and grinned, "No one can get in, and no one can get out!" I deactivated the barrier and grabbed my blonde brother, spinning him around in the air due to my joy.

"But, Kitsune-neechan, will another person be able to deactivate it as easily as you did if they have the same knowledge?" He asked confusedly.

I shook my head, "You see, Naru-chan, that's where this barrier is perfect. It has a 'key' component to it which means that unless someone the exact key to this array, they will not be able to do anything about it." I ruffled his hair as I set him down. "And I'm the only one with the key, and it isn't a simple key either, it had to be very complex otherwise another person could recreate it."

"So… if you're the only one with the key and something happens to you, does the barrier disappear?"

I shook my head again, "No, the seal itself works off of the amount of chakra that I put into it, just like all of my other barrier seals. To test it I only put enough chakra in for it to last a few minutes, but I could have given it enough chakra to last for a few hours just as easily."

"Only hours? Why not days?" The curiosity in his azure eyes pleaded with me to continue answering his questions.

"Well, let's say I ended up in the hospital and I had placed this barrier around the house, effectively sealing you in but sealing everyone else out. If the barrier lasted more than a few hours, you might run out of food or get too far behind in school, or even be late for a mission."

"Oh," He said with a satisfied look on his face. Then he smiled slightly, "Neechan? Do you think that one day I'll be just as good as you?"

My mind flashed back to the day I had asked our mother that same question, and I smiled sadly, glad that my face was hidden. "Maa, Naru-chan, I believe you'll eventually be even better than me." I said as I ruffled his hair. "You'll have to be if you want to be Hokage!"

He grinned at me, "Believe it!" He yelled happily before he ran into the house, probably to hit my old basic component scrolls that I had given him after he had mastered the calligraphy exercises.

I shook my head, but I had a small grin on my face, he would eventually be greater than me, I was certain of that.

Later that night, well after the boys had gone to bed, Itachi returned home from his last mission, a few small scratches lining his well-trimmed arms. I sighed as I healed them easily with a light green glow illuminating my fingers as I did so.

After I was finished we did as we always had when he returned from a mission, we stayed up late and shared information about what had happened in his absence. I told him about how Naruto had progressed further in his fuuinjutsu training, and that Sasuke had mastered the katon jutsu he and Itachi had been working on before Itachi had left. I also told him about how both boys were getting better in taijutsu and genjutsu, and that they had caught me successfully in a genjutsu until Sasuke sneezed.

Itachi laughed at that, and made a point to chew me out about not realizing the genjutsu sooner and releasing it.

"Hey, I've been working on it, but you haven't been around to tell me what I'm missing," I growled as I turned away from him to pout.

I smiled as he pulled me close again and kissed me. "Well, I'm here now so you'd better start working harder."

My eyes narrowed in a mock glare, "I've been slaving around here taking care of two boys and you tell me to work harder, the nerve!" I huffed at him. He kissed me again. "But I suppose I can forgive that comment for now."

"Many thanks," He said with a mock bow, causing me to grin again.

We continued to talk for a few more minutes before we both eventually grew tired enough to go off to our own rooms and sleep.

* * *

I woke up the next day and smiled lightly as I remembered what had happened the day before. I turned on my side and reached out gently to touch the picture frame at my bedside. "I hope you both still watch over us," I spoke softly, my eyes flickering over the happy grins in the frame. I turned away after a few moments and got to my feet, it was time to get ready for a new day.

A few hours later saw a clone of me cooking breakfast while I left a note on the counter for the boys to find. I was going to run a few while Itachi was to be left alone to catch up on sleep; my clone was to take them to the academy.

I wasn't too sure as to what my plans were for the day, but… I soon found myself at the memorial stone with a picnic basket in my hands. A silver-haired masked jounin was standing in front of the stone already, and I cleared my throat to catch his attention, holding my basket up with a faint smile behind my mask.

He followed me to a secluded training area where I removed my mask and set up the picnic area, my companion assisting me after a while. "How have you been, Kashi-niisan?" I asked him after we both finished eating, my eyes turned away respectfully as he pulled down his mask to eat.

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders at me, "As well as I possibly could, Hokage-sama has been keeping me busy ever since I dropped out of anbu."

I nodded, "Well you can always drop by every now and then when you're back in town. The boys both attend the academy most days and I wouldn't mind having someone other than Itachi around to spar with or play a good game of shogi." I gave him a look, "Besides, you don't seem to enjoy anyone else's company at the moment…" My gray-blue eyes flickered over his disheveled appearance.

"Imouto, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself," He said, rolling his eye at my tone and look.

I scoffed, "Sure you can take care of yourself, but that doesn't mean that you need to isolate yourself. Stop by tomorrow while the boys are at school, and don't give me any crap about you having a mission because I know that you were forced to have a day off tomorrow." I grinned foxily at him, "Not that I had anything to do with that of course."

He glared at me with his one visible eye, before sighing. "Fine," He relented finally, "I'll stop by for a while tomorrow."

I smiled at him, "Good, I'll see you then niisan!" I packed up the basket and sealed it away before I replaced my mask and vanished in a breath of wind, leaves were overrated.

* * *

An hour later saw me sitting on top of the Yondaime's head overlooking the entirety of Konoha. I smiled sadly at the memory that both of my parents had given their lives to protect this very village and all of the people in it. My eyes caught a flicker of movement in the distance and I chuckled as I watched several anbu chase after my otouto with brightly colored hair.

I got to my feet at that point, but I did not join in the chase since I would be talking to Naruto later on about whatever prank he had pulled. I only wished he had attempted to be a bit more discreet about it instead of getting caught in the act and then avoiding everyone…

That was when it finally hit me that I was fifteen, old enough to legally gain guardianship over my brother if I wished to turn in my resignation to anbu, but… my mind drifted to everything that had happened a year before and I doubted my original idea. I knew that I was being targeted by someone who had not shown his face in a full year, but if I dropped the mask and showed my face, would Naruto be targeted as well for being my brother?

I thought of how I looked at myself in the mirror and saw the resemblance between him and myself; would others see that resemblance as well?

I shook my head with a worried look hidden beneath my mask, no, I could not risk showing the world my face yet, I could not risk Naruto's safety. I would simply have to bear the mask for a while longer, at least until I was certain that Naruto would be able to get help if he needed it.

And to do that… I would need to figure out the Hiraishin. A grim look on my face, I flashed away from the Hokage monument, making my way to the Academy to pick up my brothers.

* * *

"Hey Kitsune-neechan, can I ask you a question?" Naruto asked immediately as I landed behind him, not even turning before beginning to speak.

I smiled at the fact that my otouto had finally figured out how to enhance his senses, and that he was swiftly figuring out how to interpret what his mind was giving him. "Sure, Naru-chan," I said as I looked over his friends. The Nara dipped his head at my sudden appearance, but his eyes never left my face, he was analyzing my every movement even while he covered his movements with his lazy appearance. The Inuzuka flashed me a small grin, his ninken barking a greeting to me happily. And the Akimichi was happily munching on his chips, giving me a brief nod before returning to focus on his food. "So what's the question?"

My hyperactive blonde-haired otouto turned to Sasuke and his friends before turning to me with a sheepish grin. "Would it be alright if these guys joined us for training every now and then?" He asked me curiously.

I narrowed my eyes behind my mask at the words, but kept my body loose. "I don't see why not," I responded after a moment, my eyes mostly aimed in Shikamaru's direction though my mask was pointed towards Naruto. I had a feeling the Nara had something behind the idea, despite his severe laziness, he was onto something…

My thoughts dissipated when Naruto latched onto my torso, his right arm banging roughly against my old scar, causing it to ache for a few moments before it gradually faded away. The pain would never completely fade away, but at least the wound had healed mostly due to the constant care my sensei had given it after the ambush.

I ruffled his hair for a few moments before I turned to Naruto and Sasuke's group of friends, "You all are welcome to come back to the house with us after school every now and then to train, provided you all ask your parents beforehand, I'd rather not get any of you in trouble."

Kiba high-fived Naruto and Sasuke shared a look with Shikamaru while Chouji just happily continued munching on his chips. I bit back a sigh and took a page out of the Nara handbook, _'This is going to be so troublesome…'_ I shook my head with a small laugh and that was when my eyes caught the eyes of a young girl, around the same age as Naruto. _'Interesting…'_ I thought to myself when she swiftly looked away from the group, fiddling with her fingers as she did so.

I bid farewell to Naruto and Sasuke's friends before I began to walk away, the boys slightly in front of me, talking to each other about what they wanted to work on for training. When I was certain I was out of sight of everyone I switched myself out with a shadow clone and transformed into a lean blonde fox, shooting back to the academy with no one being any the wiser.

I had some things I wanted to figure out, and my fox disguise was the perfect way to find the answers, although I had had to transform into a slightly smaller form than I was used to, since anything larger would have drawn too much attention to me. I arrived at the academy and stayed hidden near the edge of the tree line where the young Hyuuga was standing. Based on her smell and appearance I had gathered that she had to be a Hyuuga, but by the way she was standing so nervously gave me the idea that she was uncertain of herself, which made me curious.

Giving a light yip, I caught her attention quickly and was pleased when she came closer to the trees to find me. Her sharp eyes caught my shaggy blonde pelt easily, and she crooned at me, offering out her hand tentatively with a small smile, all signs of nervousness vanishing.

My blue-gray eyes intelligently caught upon this fact, and I wondered about it, but walked closer to her slowly, curious.

She gently ran her fingers through my soft fur, her eyes brightening when she realized that I was fine with the movement. "Where's your owner?" She asked me softly, "I'm sure whoever it is will be worried sick about you."

I licked her hand softly, pleased when she smiled wider at me. That was when I cocked an ear, hearing someone calling out a name. "Hinata!" I narrowed my eyes very slightly at the call, recognizing the voice instantly as Hyuuga Hiashi's, the head of the Hyuuga clan.

"Sorry, I need to go, but I hope you find your way home alright!" She said gently to me, placing a small treat in front of me before she raced away to her father, her face dropping its smile as it did so.

I waited a few moments before I licked up the treat, staring after the young girl and her father with an interested look. She was definitely a Hyuuga as I recognized the man picking her up to be Hyuuga Hiashi, the head of the Hyuuga clan. I caught him looking over at where I was hiding and I turned and trotted away, no need for him to figure out all of my secrets this early on.

* * *

I followed the two back to the Hyuuga compound and easily infiltrated it by leaping over the walls, no one the wiser since my chakra did not show up in my fox form. That was one of the perks and weaknesses of my transformation jutsu. Not only did it allow me to take on a fox's shape, but it also further enhanced all of my senses and effectively made me as a normal fox since it sealed away my chakra as well. The only thing I was able to do within fox shape was to release the jutsu, although that wasn't exactly the easiest thing to accomplish either.

It was a very useful skill for spying or infiltration though, which were the majority of the missions that I had been sent on as an anbu.

I crouched down underneath a large bush and twitched my ears, picking up every sound that I could around the compound. I had to be even more careful with this 'mission' though since foxes weren't exactly normally residents in the Hyuuga compound, if I was found and caught, I would lose my chance.

Seeing an opening in the inner perimeter I took a run for where the girl's scent flooded the area. In order to get the information I needed, I would need to be where the information was.

Jumping through the open window made things severely easy, but made me very suspicious as well, this was almost too easy, not that I was exactly complaining or anything. The girl I had been following was not to be found within her room, but that was fine, I was capable of waiting.

* * *

The young Hyuuga girl entered her room after around ten minutes and saw nothing out of the ordinary as she set her stuff down on the bed. That was around the time that I decided to hop back up onto the window sill, having jumped back out when I heard her footsteps. A soft yip brought her attention to me with a slight jump.

"How did you get here?" She asked me smoothly, confusion written all over her face, "I'm pretty sure that none of my clan members owns a fox, so how did you get in?"

I shook my pelt out before I leapt into the room, trotting over lightly to the girl and twining around her legs with another light yip.

She smiled and twined her fingers through my shaggy blonde fur. She was happy as she did so, but eventually her smile turned nervous. "You really shouldn't be here, I could get into trouble if anyone finds you in my room, my father would not approve."

My ear twitched at that little snippet of information. So her father didn't approve of much, did he? I trotted away from her and sniffed at her bed before jumping on it lightly, making sure that I didn't shed any fur as I did so. I would rather not get her into trouble with her father, especially if he already was set against her.

"Come on, please leave?" She almost begged of me.

I turned towards her and nodded with a foxy grin on my face, causing her to start.

"You can understand what I say?" She asked, shocked.

I nodded again and then seemed to ponder something before I shook my head and gave a little huff, "I can do more than just understand you…" I said in a lilting voice as I paced around the bed, laying down after a few moments.

She stared at me with an open mouth before she finally got a hold on herself. "Who, or what, are you?" I narrowed my eyes faintly when I noticed that she still didn't stutter, interesting.

"I'm not actually a fox, if that's what you would like to know," I told her in a quiet, rumbling tone. "But I am no threat to you, only… interested, if you would."

Her pale eyes narrowed at me, interesting me once more, she had seemed so shy at school. "What do you want from me?" I flickered my eyes to her hand as she slowly began to inch her fingers towards the kunai on her desk. She froze at my movement.

"I don't want anything _from_ you, but I would like to talk, if you are not opposed?" I responded calmly, noting faintly that I had her interest caught. "Good, now what is your name?"

She looked at me in confusion, but responded anyways, "Hyuuga Hinata." She offered me nothing other than her name, causing me to smile slightly inwardly. Good, a ninja should never give out too much information, although I could tell that she was interested in why I was there, otherwise she would have already called for assistance.

"Well, Hinata-chan," I caught her slight twitch at the name, "It is a pleasure to meet you finally." I paused for a moment as I decided upon how I wished to proceed, "You might have seen me around before in my human form, I'm Naruto's guardian, alias Kitsune, if you will."

She stared at me for a moment, "I can understand the alias…" She responded dryly, causing me to growl-laugh.

"Ah you don't know the half of it," I stated once I had recovered myself, "but as for why I am here, I simply wished to learn more about the Hyuuga who gazes at my charge."

The pale-eyed girl blushed at my words and I stored the information away for later use.

"So I followed this Hyuuga back to her house only to find that apparently her father does not approve of her very much and that she is alone most of the time, and seemingly shy due to a stutter when spoken to around the academy."

She did not respond immediately, but simply stared at me. "I-I… I'm weak…" She finally managed to stutter out, "I am a failure as a Hyuuga…"

I got to my paws at those words and gave a low growl, forcing her attention back on me. "You are only as weak as you let yourself be," I told her in a very low voice, "If you allow people to talk down to you and if you allow yourself to believe them, then you are _making_ yourself weak." I stared her down, and was pleased when she did not look away. "Now, you have peaked my interest in you and I would like to help you prove everyone wrong by becoming your personal tutor, will you accept?"

She stared at me as if I had grown a second head, "But… why?"

I grinned foxily, "Because I can, that's why!" I told her simply, "I would like to help you because I detest others who do not allow another to show her true colors, and because I can tell that you are more than they believe you to be. Simply from the way that you have spoken to me without fear in your gaze I can tell that you are stronger than you make yourself out to be. That's why."

My words brought a faint smile to her face, brightening it up slightly. It vanished swiftly though, causing confusion on my part. "But… what about my father? He would never agree to this."

I hooked her eyes with mine, "Leave your father to me, I'll see you tomorrow after the academy gets out." I saw her nod faintly before I leapt out of her window and continued to jump over the walls of the compound.

* * *

I released my jutsu as soon as I was out of the compound and began to walk towards the entrance, requesting respectfully to speak with Hyuuga Hiashi.

The two sentries sent me haughty looks before one of them went off to find the man I was asking for. The other sentry then proceeded to ignore me which I found quite amusing.

The sentry who had left returned with a different Hyuuga who led me through the compound to where I would meet with Hiashi. I was surprised at the fact that Hiashi had not refused to speak with me, but thankful as well, it made things easier for me significantly.

I was shown into a room where the Hyuuga head was waiting for me, an expressionless mask over his face. "Please sit, Kitsune-san," He asked me politely as he waved away his guards, something that caused me to raise an eyebrow behind my mask. Either he was showing that he trusted me or he was confident that if I attacked him he would be the champion.

"Yes, Hiashi-sama," I responded to him with a short bow before I did as he had requested. He sat down a short ways away from me.

"What did you wish to speak about, Kitsune-san?" He asked politely as he poured a glass of tea, having looked at me and acknowledged that I would not remove my mask.

I pondered my words for a few moments before I spoke up, "I would like to speak about your daughter, Hinata." I caught him tense slightly at my words, but there were no changes to his emotionless mask.

"What about my daughter?" He trained his eyes on me, watching my every movement.

"With your agreement I would like to train her a few days a week when the academy gets out in the afternoon." I said bluntly, carefully watching his movements.

"And what makes you believe that I would agree to this arrangement?" He asked me just as emotionlessly as before, although I knew that I had caught a faint flutter of hope in his eyes.

Going off of my hunch I continued, "I believe that you will agree because you love your daughter, and because you know, just as well as I do, that she has a great deal of potential locked within her." I narrowed my eyes behind my mask, "I also will keep her training a secret so that you do not have to worry about your other daughter." My eyes flickered away from the picture hidden in the corner of the room.

He stared at me for a few moments before he set down his tea and ran a hand over his suddenly tired-looking eyes. "So you have seen past my dilemma," He said quietly, shocking me. I had simply been going off of a hunch; I wasn't exactly expecting the response he was giving me! "I love both of my daughters, but I do not wish either of them to receive the seal of a branch member. Due to Hinata's apparent weakness I was able to keep Hanabi from receiving the seal, but this is not a permanent solution…" He looked back at me, pain in his eyes.

I simply stared back at him, shocked at how much he was giving away. "And my offer of training Hinata in secret would keep the elders of your clan from noticing her strength which would keep Hanabi safe as well…" I said, mostly to myself, but Hiashi nodded at me all the same.

"I agree to your offer, please, keep my daughter safe." His eyes pleaded with me in a very un-Hyuuga like way.

I got to my feet and bowed deeply, "I will do everything in my power," I told him with true respect in my voice. He had definitely earned it from me today, although I had no idea as to how I would wrap my head around everything later.

He saw me out to the edge of the compound himself, thanking me for my time before I left back towards my real home.

* * *

It wasn't everyday that someone pretty much told you all of their clans' problems, and I honestly wasn't sure about how I should react to the information I now held. One, Hinata had a crush on my otouto; two, she was extremely shy and constantly told that she is weak; three, Hiashi was now on my good-side, and I knew a bit more than I honestly had ever cared to want to find out. But above it all I was now Hinata's new secret tutor, and I was entrusted with protecting and training her.

Not only that… but I also now had to deal with the fact that Hinata was not my only student since I had Naruto and Sasuke, along with their three friends, to train every now and then as well. I sighed to myself as I walked slowly back to the Namikaze estate, I had no idea why I got myself involved in so many things, especially when most of them could bite me in the ass when I wasn't looking…

I smiled faintly, but at least I was able to help in more than one way around the village that my father had died for. I turned to look at the Hokage monument, my father's likeness the one that caught my eyes the most. I would do my best to help the new generation succeed, just as he had attempted before his untimely death.

The soft tapping of someone running lightly caused me to lose focus on my thoughts and swiftly draw a kunai, my other hand at my side ready to gather chakra if needed. I spun around and sliced with my kunai, recognition barely flitting across my face before I leapt backwards, swiftly distancing myself away from the other person before my kunai could follow through with the motion.

"I apologize, Cat-san," I said with a slight bow as I put away my kunai, my body relaxing slightly at the sight of the anbu, "Is there something I might assist you with?" I faintly hoped that it wasn't me that the female anbu had been looking for, but from the way she had been running towards me I figured that there wasn't a chance for that…

She seemed to be panting lightly, "Kitsune-san, there seems to be a problem around the west side of Konoha, I was supposed to notify every anbu and jounin I saw to head there immediately and to expect a battle."

I bit back a groan and nodded instead, "I will head there now, thank you for your notice." She leapt away, leaving me to start running swiftly towards the west wall of Konoha. As I ran, I summoned a shadow clone and sent her with a message to Itachi, along with the instructions to up the chakra in the seals around the house. She wouldn't set up the barrier, not if Itachi were still in the house.

I also flashed through summoning signs and bit my thumb before I halted to slam my hand into the ground, pleased when Kyemi showed up at my side. We both continued swiftly while I filled her in on what I knew, which wasn't very much. Before we arrived, I also dropped my gravity seals, knowing that I would need my full speed to be the most effective.

We arrived at the west wall to hear metal clashing against metal, not a very pleasant sign. Without another word, Kyemi and I leapt into the forest and entered the fray that surrounded us. I could see no hitai-ate on the foreheads of the enemy nin and I saw Kyemi flinch as she sniffed the air, telling me everything without saying anything. I growled and raised my voice, "Beware their blades, they're poisoned!" I hollered as I leapt in front of a comrade who had been pushed to the ground.

I countered the man's poisoned blade with one of my swiftly unsealed twin swords, stabbing him critically with the other. I did not hear my comrade's thanks, but in the heart of a battle, one didn't truly expect to. I fought like that for a while, making sure that all the other Leaf nin who entered the fight knew about the poisoned blades and took precautions to avoid them.

A growl from Kyemi had my hitting the ground as a cloud of fire flew over my head only to be disintegrated by my companion's wind techniques. When the fire disappeared I leapt to my feet and ran at the origin of the flames, sealing one of my swords away as I grabbed a poison seal with my now empty hand.

Dodging another stream of fire I finally drew in close enough to strike out with my sword, catching him on the arm while I swung my body around to place the seal on his body, activating it in the same motion before jumping away quickly and leaving the seal to do its fast-acting job.

I flashed away from the dying enemy to appear at the side of a struggling comrade and reroute the enemy's blade, allowing Rabbit to finish the enemy off with her attack.

The battle continued like that for a while until suddenly the clearing was quiet, at least until I heard Kyemi call me over.

Two medical nin with green-glowing hands crouched over a jounin that I did not recognize, but I was able to recognize the severity of the wound they were trying to heal. It was dealt from a poisoned blade, and the two anbu were not going to be able to save him in time, I could tell that much just by looking at their progress.

I don't remember grabbing the healing seal out of my pouch or when I 'gently' shoved the two med nin out of the way, but I definitely remember sticking the seal on the man's wound and activating it with a decent amount of my chakra. I remember watching the fast-acting healing seal doing its job swiftly before I placed a long term healing seal over the wound as well, activating it and watching the array sink into his skin over the same spot. The wound bubbled slightly as the fast-acting seal pushed the poison out of his system before closing up the wound roughly, fading away before the long term healing seal took over and slowly began to delicately fix the aftermath of the wound.

I stepped away after a while, gingerly wiping the blood on my hands off on the grass around me, sighing in relief at the knowledge that the jounin in front of me would survive.

Two other jounin picked him up with a small glance my way before the ran back towards the wall while the rest of us capable of standing walked through the aftermath of the battle, picking up our dead comrades while destroying the bodies of the enemy. I remember briefly seeing Kakashi, and I know that he saw me, but I didn't go over to him, rather intent on busying myself with searching for any possible survivors and healing the ones that I could.

* * *

"Thank you," I heard someone say as I walked through the halls of the hospital, having done a mandatory check-in after the short battle. I turned in surprise to see the man I had saved earlier standing painfully with bandages swathing his stomach.

I dipped my head to him with a relieved smile at seeing him alive, "I am just glad that you are able to heal," I told him truthfully, "but how did you know it was me who'd healed you?"

He smiled faintly at me, "The jounin that brought me in told me that you had."

I nodded, "Well, I'm glad that you're mostly alright." I paused for a few moments, "Your scar will feel like burning fire for a few days, but eventually it will just fade into a dull ache as the slow acting healing seal I put on you continues to work on the more delicate healing." I subconsciously ran my hand over the spot on my side where the scar still remained. "Also I would take it easy for about a month while you let your body continue to heal; it isn't an easy poison to get rid of."

The jounin gave me a weird look, "You sound like you've been through it yourself…" He said, his voice fading off.

I lifted the hem of my shirt up slightly to show him the long scar across the left side of my torso, "I have," I said, my voice faint, "I hope you heal fast." I shunshined away softly, not wanting to see the sympathy in his gaze.

Needless to say, I arrived home a little late that night, looking slightly like the living dead as I crossed the threshold of the estate. My clone instantly dispelled herself, leaving me to deal with Naruto, Sasuke, and Itachi on my own. Kyemi had released herself hours ago.

I gave all of them a faint briefing on what had happened and saw the worry lacing Itachi's eyes as he looked at me. The boys ended up asking more questions but a growl from me had them scurrying to their beds dejectedly.

When the boys were gone I removed my mask and turned, only to find Itachi there grabbing me and pulling me against his chest tightly. I smiled faintly, glad that he had been worried about me. "Are you alright?" He asked me softly after a few moments, his grip on me eventually relaxing.

I nodded into his shoulder with a yawn, I was utterly spent. "I'm fine, Kakashi's fine, most of the other Konoha nin involved are fine, we only lost one person today and that was before my warning came about the poisoned blades."

He tensed up again, "The same people from before?"

I shook my head, "The people from before are dead, but a different group of people from the same whole? Yeah, I think they were. They all had poisoned blades of some sort, but they weren't focusing only on one person this time, nor did many of them go after me specifically."

"And you weren't hurt at all?" His voice was laced with worry which made me smile again.

"I've got a few bruises from the enemies that decided to use taijutsu, but other than that and a bit of chakra exhaustion, I'm fine."

"Chakra exhaustion? I thought you were only using your blades?"

I bit back a yawn, "I had already run through most of my chakra earlier on in the day, one powerful transformation, a few shadow clones, summoning Kyemi, and then two healing seals on a dying jounin before assisting with recovery and helping to heal some of the minor wounds in the hospital before coming back here? Yeah, I only used my blades…" I closed my eyes as he held me, allowing myself to listen to his heartbeat.

Itachi sighed at me, "Well I'm glad you're safe," He told me, and I nodded faintly into his shoulder.

* * *

**Itachi's POV, continuation of scene**

She was safe, my Nariko was safe. I sighed and told her so as she relaxed even further in my arms. "I love you," I whispered into her hair, even though I already knew she was asleep.

I picked her up bridal style and carried her to her room, setting her down gently on the bed before attempting to let her go. Of course, I eventually gave up since she refused to let go of me, even going so far as to sleepily growl at me when I attempted to unlatch her arms.

I sighed, damn stubborn woman.

* * *

**Nariko's POV, next day**

I woke up early the next morning wondering what I had done to my pillow; it was just so… comfortable. Of course, that idea changed when I realized my pillow had a heartbeat. My eyes widened in shock and I slowly pushed myself upwards to find myself staring into Itachi's amused gaze.

"Good morning," He told me as he finally managed to untangle himself from my arms. "You fell asleep on me and then proceeded to not let me go, fearing for my safety, I relented."

I smiled sheepishly, knowing full well the kinds of things that could happen if I was disturbed while sleeping. "Sorry?"

He 'hned' at me with a faint smile on his face as he got out of the bed before his eyes briefly took in the room, including my picture frame on the bedside table. He said nothing though, so I happily didn't bring up the subject as I focused solely on getting ready for the new day.

"How're you feeling?" He asked me after I had put on my fox mask.

I shrugged my shoulders, "A little tired, but other than that I'm fine. I'll just have to go easy on the chakra today, no big deal."

He nodded at me before he casually exited the room, making me glad that no one else in our house woke up so early in the morning. I did not want to explain to anyone why Itachi was walking out of my room, even if we hadn't actually done anything during the night.

* * *

Instead of working with chakra in the morning, I focused on stretching and strength. I sighed as I had trouble getting through even the most 'simple' exercises without panting at the end. I gave a small growl, before I gave up and decided to simply meditate and extend my senses, senses that still had not worn back down from the enhancements of yesterday's transformation.

That was another perk of my transformation jutsu, the sensory enhancements didn't wear off immediately after changing back, and, if I wasn't lazy, I could maintain them to a certain standard. They would wear down eventually, but I still would have better senses than before my transformation.

The one large weakness of the jutsu though, was the large amount of chakra that it took to maintain it. At most I would be able to maintain it for a few hours, if I wanted to end up with no chakra left over at the end of it all. I was attempting to find a different way for the jutsu to work that wasn't so taxing, but so far it wasn't working the way I wanted it to…

After about an hour of meditating I went in to find Itachi cooking breakfast, the boys' alarm clocks going off in the background. "Well isn't this a surprise?" I said as I watched him whip up a very appetizing looking meal.

He flashed a small grin at me before he dished me up a plate, before sending me outside to eat. Man he could be just as stubborn as me sometimes. I finished my breakfast in record time, and it was _good_, I only wished I had known Itachi could cook earlier on. By the time I walked back into the estate, the boys were already finished with their meals and were preparing to head out the door.

"So, Kitsune-neechan? Can our friends come over after school today if their parents say yes?" Naruto asked me as he gathered his gear together.

I froze, having completely forgotten about that little bit of information. "We'll see, Naru-chan," I told him as I ruffled his hair.

He nodded at me as he grabbed the rest of his stuff and trotted to the front door, waiting impatiently for Sasuke, Itachi, and I to join him.

"Do you have your gravity seals activated?" I asked him as we walked out the door, smiling when he groaned at me. "Hey, you were the one who wanted them in the first place, now you'd better use them." I had taught him how to make the seals himself a while back which would allow him to activate or deactivate them if needed.

If I had made the seals and put them on him he would not have been able to deactivate them which would have been a liability if he got into a sticky situation and was not able to get away.

He activated his seals with a sigh, barely grimacing as the weight set in on his body. I nodded, pleased and he walked out the door, shortly joined by Itachi and Sasuke, leaving me to close the door. I didn't bother locking the door since the seal traps that I had surrounding the property would work so much better than a lock. Besides, most people knew to stay away from the estate; a few civilians had tried getting passed the doors one year and were lucky I had been home to heal them when they got themselves electrocuted by my seals…

A few blocks later I moved up to Itachi, "I'll see you later, alright?" I told him softly, waiting for his nod.

He gave me a look before nodding at me with a faint sigh, not that I heard the sigh because at that point I was already gone.

* * *

**That's all for this chapter, I hope it was alright for you, I ended up writing it five or six times before I was alright with the content, ^^;**


	8. Chapter 7

**And we're back once more! Please remember that this story was completely rewritten as of 07/17/2012 and if you read the other chapters before then you should probably go back and reread… Everything from the other chapters pretty much fits into the first three of this rewrite, and a lot of the content has changed, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto**

**Just as a notice, this is what's going on with Nariko and training…**

**Nariko trains Naruto and Sasuke on a daily basis, but sometimes she uses her clones to do it. Itachi also sometimes takes over, on the few days that he's in the village between missions.**

**Inuzuka Kiba, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Chouji are all Naruto and Sasuke's friends, and Nariko will sometimes be assisting in their training as well, nothing too intricate, probably just aim, basic taijutsu, and chakra control. **

**She might also teach fuuinjutsu to Shika, a different transformation jutsu or sense-enhancing skill to Kiba, and I haven't figured out what she potentially could teach to Chouji that would be beneficial to him…**

**She also is the personal tutor to Hyuuga Hinata, secretly, approximately three times a week. This will mainly be chakra control and taijutsu training. Hinata already knows the basics of her clans taijutsu style, Nariko will simply be working on strength and speed to enhance the style she already has begun to learn.**

**So basically… Nariko has her hands full with a boatload of young kids… Joy**

**On with the chapter!**

* * *

**Nariko's POV**

A strong breeze pushed against the sides of my body as I ran swiftly despite the heavy gravitational seals that weighed me down. I had a few special errands to run today, mainly dealing with my three new semi-students. I sighed, Naruto and Sasuke definitely knew how to make my life busier, not that they ever really _tried_ to make anything tougher; they just managed to do so.

So my first errand was to visit Akimichi Chouza and introduce myself to him and describe what I would be offering to teach his son. I sighed once more; I should have done this yesterday, but had been caught up in stalking Hinata-chan and speaking with her father before taking part in a short battle outside the walls.

Although, with the odd attacks that had been taking place on Konoha, I wasn't really complaining about training the new generation, they would probably need to be as prepared as possible before graduating from the academy. I halted my movements on a rooftop in front of Chouji's house and hoped that his father was in and willing to speak with me.

I leapt down from my vantage point and knocked on the door, hearing light footsteps before the door opened up to the person I was looking for.

"Ah, you must be the anbu my son was speaking of, Kitsune-san, was it?" He asked me, his eyes light and cheerful.

I smiled behind my mask; maybe this wouldn't be so bad. I bowed lightly to him, "Yes, I am Kitsune, Naruto's guardian. Your son asked if I wouldn't mind training him alongside Naruto and a few friends, and I am willing to agree provided I have your permission."

He eyed me up for a few moments before stepping aside from the door and waving me into the house. "What would you be teaching my son?" He asked me, his face turning more serious as he spoke.

I paused for a moment, "I would work mostly with basic chakra control and taijutsu while offering some assistance in kunai and shuriken throwing. That is my plan for the other boys as well."

Chouza nodded, "I see nothing wrong with his training with friends, although I am surprised that you offered seeing as you are simply Naruto's guardian."

"I have grown close to my charge, and have taken him on as a student on the side. Uchiha Itachi also assists in training Naruto and his younger brother, Sasuke. There is a chance that some days he would assist in the training of the other boys as well."

"You are a very busy person, Kitsune-san," His eyes were slightly narrowed, but I remained relaxed.

"Only after the academy gets out, Chouza-sama," I said with a small smile, "When it is in session I have far too much time on my hands." Okay, that wasn't _exactly_ true, I normally spent that time training, creating new seals, or helping the Hokage in menial ways.

He nodded, "Very well, will you be taking my son after school tonight then?"

"If it is alright with you," I responded with another small bow, "I will make sure that he is back in time for dinner."

"Thank you," He responded before he showed me to the door once more.

I said my farewell before I leapt away in a blur of red, black, and yellow.

* * *

My next stop was with Inuzuka Tsume, Kiba's mother. She met me at the front door with her partner, Kuromaru, seconds before I had gone to knock. I had a feeling that Kuromaru had smelled my approach when I had gotten close, but it didn't really matter to me.

"So you are Kitsune?" Tsume asked me with an appraising look, "You definitely smell of foxes."

I bowed slightly to her, "I am a fox summoner amidst other things." I responded, my voice trailing off with the mystery.

"_She has the mischief nature of one as well, Tsume,"_ Kuromaru barked at his companion, having looked me over as well.

"I am pleased that you think so, Kuromaru-sama," I responded to the large dog, earning interested glances from both.

"Why don't you come inside, Kitsune-san?" The hardened veteran asked me, waving me into the house before her, Kuromaru leading me to the sitting room. "So Kiba has spoken to me of you, but I am glad you decided to meet me on your own."

"I thought it would be polite to introduce myself to you before I asked for permission to train your son," I responded to her.

She nodded; her eyes sharp as she and Kuromaru watched me. "What would you be teaching Kiba?"

"I will mostly be focusing on basic chakra control and taijutsu along with some kunai and shuriken throwing, although since Kiba is an Inuzuka I am also willing to teach him a few sense-enhancing tricks to make him and Akamaru better trackers."

Tsume exchanged a look with Kuromaru, "I take it you have used these 'tricks' on yourself? How efficient are you?"

I narrowed my eyes faintly behind my mask, I didn't exactly want to share my abilities, but I had a feeling I would need to in this situation. "Right now I can smell anything within a thirty meter radius, although the scent is very faint around twenty meters, within the next few days that will probably drop down to a twenty-five meter radius. I can hear anything within a fifteen meter radius and that will remain, and I can feel anything within a five meter radius which is about the most I can enhance that sense." I noticed the slight shock on Tsume's face, "I have created a jutsu that allows me to gain a fox's sensory enhancements for a short while, and after I receive the enhancements I train in order to strengthen what I was given and each time I improve."

Kuromaru sniffed at me, _"No wonder you smell so much like foxes."_ He seemed to look down on the species I worshipped, but I said nothing in response, it wouldn't do to upset either of them.

Tsume narrowed her eyes at me, "And what is in it for you? Training my son, that is?"

I bit back a sigh; I should have known that someone would ask me that question, "Absolutely nothing except for the knowledge that I made my charge happier by helping his friends as well as him. Not to mention the knowledge that eventually your son will become a Konoha ninja and the more preparation he has before that time, the better prepared he will be for defending this village."

She seemed to ponder my answer for a while, "Very well, will you be taking Kiba and Akamaru tonight?"

I nodded, "I will ensure that they are back home before dinner, thank you, Tsume-sama, Kuromaru-sama," I bowed slightly to both of them in turn.

They showed me to the door and I said my farewells before I once more took off in a blur.

* * *

I stopped outside of the Nara family house for a few moments with a small growl. This was the one conversation that I had not been looking forward to. My father had spoken of Nara Shikaku to me when he was still alive, and from what I could gather, he was a very intelligent ninja. And he had known my father, which meant that he might put two and two together and reveal my secrets.

I pushed these thoughts aside, jumping down from my position and walking casually to his door before knocking, making sure that my body was fully relaxed for this meeting.

"Ah, Kitsune-san," Nara Yoshino said as she opened the door, "Come on in, my husband is in the other room." She led me through the house to where Nara Shikaku was sitting in front of a window, a shogi board off to the side. "Shikaku, Kitsune-san is here to speak with you about Shikamaru."

I smiled faintly behind my mask, I had thought that Shikamaru wouldn't have spoken to his parents about me, but apparently he had. I heard Shikaku mutter something under his breath, but he turned to look at me anyways, nodding to his wife.

"I'm sorry to intrude on you, Shikaku-sama," I said with a slight bow.

He looked me over with a lazy look on his face, before he pulled the shogi board in front of him and invited me to sit on the other side. I did as he asked, helping to set up the pieces. "Shikamaru has spoken of you before, you seem to have piqued his interest," He told me as he made the first move.

I nodded, making my move. "I figured as much when Yoshino-sama knew exactly what I was here for. I would have thought that he would have left the explaining for me."

Shikaku continued with his next move, "It surprised me as well when he brought up the subject of you training him along with his friends." He watched as I made my next move before he continued to speak, "What exactly would you be training him?"

I made another move after he had, "Mostly basic chakra control, taijutsu, and shuriken and kunai throwing. Although due to his severe intelligence I was also thinking of teaching him the basics of fuuinjutsu, with your permission of course."

"Fuuinjutsu? That's something I don't see around very much, how did you come to learn it?" He made another move, taking one of my more important pieces.

My eyes flickered across the board for a moment before I took another of his pieces. "I was an apprentice to Jiraiya and have studied it for years after I returned to Konoha." I turned my eyes to him beneath my mask, acknowledging the intelligence in his lazy eyes; I would need to be very careful now that he was asking more personal questions.

"How proficient are you in the study?"

I did not respond for a few moments, "According to Jiraiya-sensei I am what many would consider a master in the subject, but I still have much to learn." I looked at him again, seeing him look me over with a lazy glance before he took another piece of mine.

"Don't we all," He responded, his eyes narrowing faintly. I forced myself to remain relaxed; he was getting very close at this point. "Why are you so willing to teach my son?"

I made my move, taking a valuable piece of his, "I am willing to do this because my charge asked me if I would, and I have no problems in assisting the new generation prepare for a life as ninja."

He seemed to accept my answer, but I caught the faint smile on his lips, "I remember someone else speaking to me in somewhat the same way before. You remind me a lot of him."

I barely kept myself from freezing, "Oh? I've gotten that before, but I've been unsure as to whom everyone is referring to, I wasn't in Konoha very much as a child and I only recently got back a few years ago."

Shikaku looked me over, his eyes faintly narrowing again. "He was a great ninja, I'm sure you've heard of him before, the Yondaime Hokage."

I made my next move on the board, "I'm nowhere near his level, although he was one of my idols as a child, Jiraiya-sensei spoke of him a lot."

He nodded at me, "I suppose that might be why you remind people so much of him, but there's something else about you as well. Are you sure you aren't related to him in some way?"

I shook my head, "Not that I know of." I was surprised when my voice came out so normal despite the slight panic attack that I was having inside.

"Pity," He said slightly before he made the last move on the shogi board. "You played a very good game, who taught you?"

I smiled behind my mask, "My parents did when I was little."

His eyes narrowed again and I had to pinch myself under the table to keep from freezing entirely. "Is that so?" He began to put away the pieces and I immediately assisted. "I would not mind you training my son, Kitsune-san, thank you for your offer." His eyes caught on the back of my gloves and he suddenly grabbed my wrist to stare at the design.

I pulled my hand away swiftly, but not before I saw the triumphant look in his eyes. "I know only one person who used that symbol, and barely anyone ever saw it." He blinked at me once, "Your secret is safe with me, Namikaze-san."

I sighed with a faint growl, "You Nara are too damn observant," I hissed under my breath. I listened for his wife and was pleased to hear that she was in the other room, cooking noisily. I shifted my mask slightly, allowing him to see my face for a few moments before I hid it once more.

"So you're his daughter then?" Shikaku asked me, "I honestly must admit that I had no idea he had had any other children."

I sighed and nodded, "Namikaze Nariko, daughter of Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina. I take it you know about Naruto then?"

He nodded, "It would be hard not to notice the resemblance he bears to our late Hokage."

"Tell that to the rest of the village…" I muttered under my breath.

He flashed me a lazy grin, "Thank you for offering to train Shikamaru, _Kitsune_-san, shall I see you out?"

I shook my head, flashing him a glare from behind my mask. "I can see myself out, thanks." I got to my feet, but paused before leaving, "I trust that you will keep my secret to yourself and not drop any hints to your son, it's bad enough that he's close to figuring out my relationship with my brother."

Shikaku laughed, "That's my son for you, but I promise that I will not tell a soul."

"That includes your friends Chouza-sama and Inoichi-sama," I deadpanned lightly, making sure that I was covering all the basics.

He rolled his eyes and nodded, "Now go, I'm sure you have other things to get around to."

I growled faintly at him before I saw myself to the door, bidding farewell to Yoshino before disappearing in a dark blur.

* * *

**Shikaku's POV**

I looked out my window to see Kitsune flash away in a swift sprint and whistled faintly under my breath. Yep, she was definitely related to Minato. I turned back to glance at the shogi board, she had even played like he had, not to mention spoken like him. She also bore a great resemblance to her father, and her mother, if her eyes and mischief nature were anything to go by. She also knew fuuinjutsu, and I doubted that she had learned it solely from Jiraiya.

I smiled faintly, _'Looks like you didn't fully die off after all.'_

* * *

**Nariko's POV**

As soon as I arrived back at the Namikaze estate I decided to vent my frustration on a few of the trees in the area. I spun into action, a blur of color against the shadowed ground. A few trees cracked and groaned around me as I beat some of them so much that they fell loudly to the ground, making me glad later on that I had chosen to go further out into the training grounds instead of close to the house.

It was around that time that Kakashi decided to show up, an amused look on his face as he looked over the path of destruction I had caused. "Bad day, Imouto?" He said to me as he simply stood nearby, lazily, while I panted and glared at him.

I settled down after a few moments, once more pushing away my frustration. "You could say that, Kashi-niisan," I responded as I blushed behind my mask, finally noting just how many trees I had decided to demolish.

"I take it that this isn't at all about what happened yesterday?"

I frowned, confused for a moment, before the battle came back to me in spurts. "Nah, not really, sure that pissed me off as well, but not as much as Nara Shikaku does at the moment."

He raised his only visible eyebrow at me, "Nara Shikaku pissed you off? Did he look at you wrong or something?"

I removed my mask after making sure that no one was nearby, "Not quite…" I sighed pitifully. "When I went to pick Naru-chan up yesterday he talked me into training three of his friends, Shikaku's son, Shikamaru, was on the list. So today I decided to make myself known to their parents and outline everything that I would be teaching them, like any good tutor-to-be would."

Kakashi rolled his eye at my words, but waved at me to continue.

"So I went over to talk with Shikaku and he talked me into a game of shogi… of course I apparently reminded him a _lot_ about an old companion of his, even played shogi in around the same way." I growled faintly as Kakashi finally caught on, "Needless to say out loud, he caught on and figured out my heritage, turns out he already knew about Naruto, just hadn't seen me around often enough to make out my relation to everything."

My adopted aniki nodded, "Are you sure that's such a bad thing though? Just think, the more people who figure things out on their own, the easier it will be for you to eventually take on your true name."

I narrowed my eyes at him, "You know just as well as I do that I cannot take on my name right now, not when Naruto is still an academy student."

He rolled his eye again, "Sure, but eventually you will admit your heritage, and it will no longer matter whether or not Naruto is prepared enough for it."

I nodded, "But at least I can do my best to ensure that he is." I paused for a moment before grinning foxily, "Anyways… how are your new students?"

He glared at me, "I failed them, they were worthless, no sense of teamwork at all."

This time I rolled my eyes, "Because any ninja at that age would automatically spout off 'teamwork' when faced with a challenge? You sure didn't."

"You did."

My gray-blue eyes flashed, "I had people to teach me the values of teamwork early on, most don't."

He waved a hand at me lazily.

I growled at him lightly before pausing and remembering something, "Hey, I saw you fighting yesterday as well, how're you doing?"

My adopted brother stared at me for a moment, "I'm doing fine, they didn't manage to cut me, and I didn't waste too much chakra on them."

I smiled, "That's good; that poison's something nasty." I rubbed a hand over my side without thinking about it, but Kakashi caught my movement and his gaze turned suspicious.

"Does it still cause you pain?" He asked me, having originally found out about the attack from Itachi since he had been out on a mission at the time it occurred.

I shook my head, "Pain? No, but it does ache every once in a while, but that's only slightly irritating, hurts less than placing a seal on my body."

He glared at me, "Putting a seal on your body is quite painful, how much _less_ does it _irritate_ you?"

I figured it was my turn to glare at him, "Quite a bit less, Kakashi, it's mostly just a fading memory now, nothing severe." I turned to look at the sky and swore, "Sorry aniki, but I gotta go!" I heard him sigh briefly before I replaced my mask and flashed away, running swiftly towards the academy to pick up my students.

The word rumbled within my mind almost like a cat's purr, _students_, I officially had students, albeit only partially. Naruto and Sasuke didn't count since they were my family, but Kiba, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Hinata? They were all my students, and I felt amazed at the word.

I arrived at the academy in record time with my new weights, telling me that I would have to once more up the pull on my seals; I was getting very close to my desired speed. My brother practically attacked me as soon as I showed up, making me very glad that I had decided against using a clone right away, that would come later, obviously.

"Alright kids, I'm late and I apologize," I said as I grabbed Naruto in a headlock, preventing him from continuing his attack. "All of your parents agreed to my terms and I will train the three of you alongside Naruto and Sasuke until dinner. This will not happen everyday, probably only a few times each week, alright?"

The three boys nodded while Naruto dislodged himself from my grasp and sent a goofy grin my way, "Now start moving, we don't have all day!" I pushed Naruto into Sasuke and watched as they both started to move before I substituted myself with a clone and hid in the trees, pleased when my switch didn't faze the Nara kid at all. I had a Hyuuga to pick up.

* * *

"Hinata-chan," I called lightly from the forest, drawing the young Hyuuga's attention to me. She gave a small look around before she entered just beyond the tree line to meet with me. "Alright, here's the deal, your father agreed for me to train you, provided that your training is kept secret, understood?"

She nodded, a small look of confusion on her face at the thought of her father agreeing. "Will we start today?"

I nodded, "Yes, we start today." I grabbed her waist and leapt away, running swiftly until I was close to the Namikaze training grounds. With my speed I should have beat the group of boys and my clone home which would allow me to give Hinata a lesson before my clone and I switched places.

It was not my ideal training style, but at least it would allow me to help all of them at once, at least until I managed a training schedule which alternated the days that I trained Hinata with the days that I assisted in the training of the boys.

"So Hinata-chan, what have you done so far on chakra control?"

She shook her head shyly, "I haven't done too much with it, but as a Hyuuga I have done some training during my sessions with my family…"

I nodded, I had figured as much, but if she was going to be able to utilize her Byakugan to its best, she would need much greater chakra control. "Then we shall start off easy, I want you to climb that tree there," I threw a kunai at a specific tree, "without using your hands."

Seeing her confused look I summoned chakra to my feet and walked towards the tree, before continuing along its side. "Concentrate your chakra evenly to the soles of your feet, but do not use too much or too little. Mark your progress with the kunai I threw."

Hinata nodded before she grabbed my kunai and began the exercise.

I took the moment she was looking away from me to create a new clone and switch with it, before I raced off to my other clone, switching places with it and dispelling it after it hid a ways away. I sighed slightly as the memories of the slow walk poured into my mind.

"Wow, you guys live here?" I heard Kiba exclaim in a loud voice as we finally approached the house. "This place is huge!"

I grinned behind my mask as Naruto told him all about the house and how he had been able to move into it after he had gotten me as a guardian. After that moment, the boys began to look at me in a slightly different light, although I wasn't really able to figure out what had changed.

"Alright boys, here's what we're going to do." I said as I pulled out a few kunai. "You three will be tree climbing using only your feet while Naruto and Sasuke will be working on their water walking." I got groans from Naruto and Sasuke while the other three simply looked confused.

Naruto and Sasuke, deciding that complaining was useless, immediately went to the nearby pool of water my mother had created years ago and began their attempts at water walking.

I, however, turned back to the three boys and threw my kunai at the same time, not looking at where they ended up since I already knew their trajectory. The thumps of them hitting wood told me that they had struck true, all landing on different trees. "Now you three will be climbing trees, but it will be easier if I just show you how I want you to do this." With that I walked over to one of the trees and began to climb it using only my feet. When I was several meters up I pushed off the tree and entered into an elaborate flip before I landed easily on my feet. "Summon chakra to the soles of your feet and climb; this will help greatly with your chakra control." I narrowed my eyes slightly as I turned to Shikamaru, "And you'd better not slack off, remember, the sooner you finish this exercise, the sooner you can do things that aren't so _troublesome_."

Chouji laughed at my words, "Dang Shikamaru, she's already got your personality down!"

The pineapple-haired boy muttered something along the lines of 'troublesome woman' but I let it slide for the moment.

"Use the kunai that I threw to mark your progress, first one to the top gets to ask me a question about anything they want." I winced faintly at my own words, knowing that I would probably regret that idea later, but I figured that it was the best way to get Shika motivated.

I watched them for a few moments before I switched with a new clone and went to check on Hinata, dispelling my clone and gaining its memories as I did.

Needless to say, I was _very_ impressed to find her steadily making her way up the tree, all the way to the top. She struggled for a few moments near the top, but swiftly got her chakra under control again, regaining her pace. My eyes flickered across the marks she had made on the tree, showing that she had been improving far faster than I would have thought possible.

I grinned happily, I had a feeling that training Hinata would not be very hard at all if she learned everything just as fast.

* * *

It was an hour later when I saw Hinata walk back down the tree from the top, a broad grin on her face. She had walked up and down the tree quite a few times already, but had done so multiple times until she had gotten it right. However, she was beginning to run low on chakra and I knew that I would definitely need to work on her stamina, which was the next task on my list.

"Good job, Hinata-chan!" I told her happily, "That's the fastest I've ever seen anyone complete this exercise!"

Her smile widened at me, having been lost in the moment she had forgotten her shyness. "What's next, Kitsune-sensei?"

My smile widened at her words, feeling very happy at the fact that she had called me Kitsune-sensei. However I could not let myself get lost in the moment, so instead I continued on with her training. "Well normally this exercise would take people multiple days and so I would normally go right into water walking, but I don't want you to suffer from chakra exhaustion on the first day of training."

She looked down at the ground, her shyness setting in once more.

"So how about for the rest of the day you work on accuracy with shuriken and kunai?"

She nodded at me, "Alright, sensei!"

I grinned at the words again before I walked away, signaling for her to follow me as I led her to an area I had already set targets up in. "If you find that a certain distance or angle is too easy for you, move to a different distance or angle to challenge yourself."

She nodded and immediately started up again, allowing me to switch with a clone and return to the boys.

I arrived back to the boys to find Kiba growling at a tree as he picked himself up again, Chouji slowly but surely making progress, and Shikamaru… lazing around on a branch near the top.

A mischievous grin settled onto my face behind my mask as a plan entered my mind. I thought about it for a few, short, moments before I dropped my gravity seals and flashed to the branch above Shikamaru, hanging upside down from it. "Have you completed the exercise, Shika-chan?"

The kid flinched faintly at my speed before muttering 'troublesome'. "Nah, I just took a branch near the top, this exercise is such a drag."

"A drag that could very well save your life in the future," I scolded faintly as I grabbed him and flashed back down to the ground, setting him down as I did so. "Now finish the exercise, I know you can do it."

He sighed at me before he lazily walked up the tree, barely breaking a sweat as he climbed all the way to the top before walking back down to the ground. "Can I be done now?"

I nodded, "Sure, but didn't you want to ask a question?"

He thought about that for a moment, "I haven't thought of a good one yet so I'll save that thought for later."

I chuckled, "As you wish, Shika-chan." I left him watching the clouds in the middle of the clearing before I moved over to watch Sasuke and Naruto who were working on water walking.

Of course, at the moment it looked more like water running since, for whatever reason, a very wet Sasuke was chasing a laughing Naruto around the small pool of water.

I flashed in between the two of them, grabbing Naruto by the collar of his black and orange suit while poking Sasuke on the forehead, much like his brother normally would. "What's going on here?" I asked them with an exasperated voice, having somehow managed to gain Kiba, Chouji, and Shikamaru's attention at the same time. "I look away from you for a few minutes only to find you two fighting again." I turned to Sasuke, "What was it this time?"

The Uchiha didn't look at me, preferring to glare at Naruto. "He used a water jutsu on me while I was concentrating."

I bit back a chuckle, Sasuke's biggest problem with water walking was that he concentrated too much on controlling his chakra, and I had a feeling that Naruto had just been trying to assist, albeit in his own way.

"Naruto, you could have assisted Sasuke in a more _mature_ manner than forcing him to chase you across the water…" I said with a sigh, causing Sasuke to finally realize that he was standing on top of water, which forced me to grab hold of him to prevent him from sinking.

"It worked at least, right Kitsune-neechan?"

I rolled my eyes behind my mask before I released him, watching as he barely stumbled across the surface as we walked back to the shore, Sasuke still held up by my arm. "Yeah, you got him to stop concentrating too much on his chakra, but you still could have done it different, you might even have hurt him if you had put too much power behind that suiton jutsu."

He sighed, apologizing almost immediately.

"But since you two are so intent on fighting each other, I want you to spar, taijutsu only, do you hear me?"

They nodded, trotting off a little ways to begin their spar before I glanced back to the three boys, happy when Kiba and Chouji immediately got back to work while Shikamaru watched Sasuke and Naruto's battle.

So while everyone was preoccupied I switched once more, rejoining my other student as she worked on her accuracy. Of course, I was currently unable to see her since she had backed up quite far, still maintaining the same accuracy from before, but slower since it was clear she had to work harder to gain the same results.

"Hinata, come over here for a moment," I said as I watched shuriken fly around me, all of them hitting their targets.

My student joined me after a while, "Yes, sensei?"

"I've noticed that while you can hit the targets from wherever you stand, you are having difficulties throwing them from some of those distances, why don't we work on strength training for a while now?"

She nodded, and the joy on her face at receiving the strenuous training pulled at my heart.

Naruto and Sasuke had even complained about some of the training I had given them, but here Hinata was, completely thankful. So I went on with the training of the child who reminded me so much of me at points, letting my clone take care of the boys while I trained Hinata one-on-one.

* * *

The end of training for the day came sooner than I had thought possible, and I had my clone summon more clones on her own to take all the boys home while that clone watched over Naruto and Sasuke for dinner, dinner that Itachi had apparently made.

In the meantime, I transformed myself into a large fox around Kyemi's size, albeit leaner than my partner, and took Hinata home. I dropped her off in her room, praising her on her good work for the day before I left, transforming back into myself once I was outside the compound.

Hiashi met me around there, and I told him everything that had gone on in training, and my request to take her the next night as well. He agreed, looking upset at the idea that his child was so different from the joyful little girl she had once been.

I couldn't agree with him more, but I knew that he had brought most of this upon himself, a clan head was the head of a clan just as a Kage was the head of a village. Council members could argue upon certain things, but ultimately the decision was in the hand of the leader, although most leaders would not argue too much with their councils because they did not wish to alienate them.

Of course I knew that it was the smartest course of action, for to alienate one's nobles they risked the nobles turning against them and attacking. Which ultimately led to nothing getting done…

I flashed home and entered the house, seeing my brother and Sasuke sitting down with Itachi, the three of them grinning and speaking in murmured voices.

"Am I interrupting something, boys?" I asked them curiously, one of my hands on my hip, an eyebrow raised. Of course they wouldn't be able to see my raised eyebrow, but it was just one of those moments.

Naruto broke away from the crowd swiftly, launching himself into the air and crashing into me, causing me to take a slight step back with the impact. "Itachi-nii was just teaching us some things about strategy."

I looked at my yellow-haired brother with narrowed eyes, "Is that so?" I asked, my voice hiding its suspicion, "I suppose I was just left out of the fun of strategizing then, it never caused me to smile like that unless it was a strategy for a prank."

My otouto barely twitched at the words which caused me to smile faintly, he was turning into a very good liar. I set him down, "Well then, by all means continue! I'm just going to go and work on a few things…" I gave Itachi a small glance before I continued down the hall and into my room.

* * *

Itachi found me in my room an hour later, with my hair let down out of its ponytail but still held back by my bandana. The result was slightly messy hair that fell to my shoulders. Over the year I had allowed it to grow out once more, ever since I had come up with a jutsu that allowed me to turn my spiky ponytail into actual spikes, preventing an opponent from using my longer hair against me.

I was meditating at the time, speaking to Kurama deep within our connection, and so did not hear him come in. It was only when I felt him poke my shoulder that I broke out of my meditation and swung into action.

In the end all I had to say was that Itachi was very glad that he had had a clone poke me while he waited from halfway across the room because his clone was mutilated while I threw a few kunai into the wall behind Itachi.

"And this is why I leave notes instead of waking you up…" He said in a deadpan voice, causing me to laugh sheepishly.

"Sorry, Itachi," I remarked, "Guess my reflexes didn't go down the drain when I became a guardian."

His only response to that was to raise an eyebrow at me. After a few moments he walked over to the desk I had hidden in a corner of the room and took a look at the partial sealing array written on paper across it. "What will this seal do?"

I smiled faintly, "Well, if I can figure out how to finish that seal I aim for it to do the same thing as my father's Hiraishin, except with a faint twist."

He glanced at me, "You're attempting to recreate the Hiraishin? What's the twist?"

My smile grew crooked, "The twist is that I won't require kunai to use it, I'll just need to see or _know_ where I'm going."

An eyebrow rose, "So you'll pretty much be able to go anywhere that you've seen before?"

I nodded, "Yeah, cool isn't it? But not only that, if I know someone's specific chakra signal I should hopefully be able to flash to their side as well, which would greatly reduce the amount of seals I would need to keep updated."

He frowned at that, "How will you be able to teleport places without seals anchoring you at all?"

That caused me to sigh, "Well my _goal_ is to anchor the seal to my thoughts which means that my thoughts would anchor me to wherever I want to go, but so far I cannot figure out how to make that work."

My dark-haired companion nodded, "You have an entire lifetime to figure it out, Nariko, but for now you might want to attempt to recreate the level your father reached before going a few steps forward."

I sighed again, "I suppose… but that doesn't mean that I'll give up on this seal, there's not a chance to that."

He smiled, "I would be terrified if you did give up, Nariko, good night." He kissed me softly before he exited my room, leaving me to work with Kurama about the puzzle that was the Hiraishin's basic seal.

* * *

…**And I'm just going to end this chapter here… Next chapter should focus more on Nariko and Hinata with a little bit of Naru/Sasu/Ita training as well. The other boys might come back again later in the chapter as well; I haven't decided that yet…**

**As for Nariko and the Hiraishin? I can guarantee you that she will at least figure out what Minato had figured out, but as for everything else that was outlined in this chapter, even I have no idea.**

**Please review, I live off of them!**


	9. Chapter 8

**Another new chapter, this one focuses around Nariko and Hinata with a little bit of NaruSasuIta thrown in as well… maybe, ^^;**

**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto (wish I did sometimes though)**

* * *

**Nariko's POV**

"Come on Hinata, I know that you are able to do this, just allow your chakra to move fluidly, focus on movement, feel the water flow beneath you." I said as I stood on top of the water, watching my young student as she struggled. I had created this small pond earlier in the day using a condensed Rasengan and a few suiton jutsu.

My pale-eyed student nodded as she pulled herself out of the water once more, focusing her chakra back to her feet. She gently placed herself on the surface of the water and walked a few steps before her feet began to sink slightly. She paused and refocused her chakra, taking another step and placing herself back on the surface.

I watched as she did this for a while more, walking and sinking, walking and sinking, before I tapped my foot lightly and sent a small ripple of my own across the pond, causing her to struggle once more.

She flashed me a small glare, causing me to smile behind my mask. She was getting bolder every day that I continued to train her, having done so for a week already. Not only that, but she had proven that she was a genius at hard work, never allowing herself to give up, even though I knew that she wanted to every now and then.

The things I had thrown at her throughout the week hadn't exactly been the easiest. On the first day of training she had successfully figured out the tree walking exercise and worked a little on accuracy. On the second day I sent her through a strenuous stamina building exercise, not allowing her to stop for too long. The third day saw her learning how to use the Kage Bunshin, something I had taught Naruto early on to assist with his training.

The fourth day we spent meditating, forcing her to rely on her Byakugan to tell me certain things that happened around us. She had found out then that I was able to extend my senses in a way similar to her Byakugan, but that my way wasn't nearly as efficient as hers. In a way, that day was just as much a day of training for me as it was for her.

On the fifth day I had her run through the stamina building exercise again, as well as having her make a shadow clone to meditate while a few of my clones spotted for her.

Now, on the sixth day, I was having her go through the water walking exercise without using any clones. I figured that she would probably need all of her chakra for the exercise, and creating a clone would just waste that chakra.

I was training her in a very different manner than I had when working with Naruto or Sasuke. With them training was more along the lines of force and stamina while with Hinata it was more grace and simplicity.

I smiled as I watched her pull herself out of the water once more, having gone under due to a small wave that I sent towards her. As I watched her get up and try again I saw a different girl in her place, a girl with semi-spiky blonde hair and determined gray-blue eyes. I saw myself in her, and I knew that was why I had been drawn to her in the first place.

She was determined to go on, determined to show everyone what she could do, as well as determined to protect those she cared for. In the way that she had gone up to me in fox form and showed me such kindness, in the way that she looked at her father despite the disappointment that he had pretended to think of her, and in the way that she spoke of her younger sister… She wanted to be able to protect them all, but they had all thought her weak.

I couldn't say that I had been in the exact same position, but after I had lost my parents I had set myself on the same path as her, working hard for everything I had, hoping that one day it would be enough.

A timer rang faintly in the distance and I chuckled as Hinata walked off the water and threw herself on the ground, panting tiredly. "You did well today, Hinata-chan," I praised her as I joined her on the side of the pond. "I think you deserve a day off tomorrow to relax before we start up again next week, alright?"

She nodded at me, pulling herself to her feet before walking over to the rest of her clothes. I had told her to bring her swimsuit with her for the day, telling her that she would most likely get wet.

When she was ready, I transformed into a tall fox once more and zipped off towards the Hyuuga compound. Leaving her with a few instructions I easily exited the compound before transforming back into my normal self and flashing back to the house.

I had found, within the past week, that transforming was becoming easier to accomplish the more I did it. Not only that, but my chakra reserves had already begun to show growth the more I used my transformation jutsu, allowing me to reach high jounin level reserves, something I had been striving to achieve for a while. I smirked behind my mask at the thought, I was probably the 'weakest' anbu in accordance to chakra levels, but I had gained my rank through my mastery over taijutsu, kenjutsu, and fuinjutsu. It probably helped that most of my techniques were either ones that I had created to not need as much chakra, or ones that I had altered to not require as much chakra.

Although, despite my lack of need for large amounts of chakra, I had a feeling I would be needing chakra in the near future, forcing me to push my body more and more when I could.

Itachi glanced at me when I came in, rolling his eyes as I snuck through the house and switched places with the clone I had cooking dinner. The boys never even noticed a thing.

* * *

"Will Kiba, Shikamaru, and Chouji be joining us tomorrow?" I asked Naruto and Sasuke over dinner, curious.

The two boys shared a look with each other before Sasuke, surprisingly, was the one to speak up. "Actually we were all hoping to get a day to hang out tomorrow."

I glanced at Itachi who nodded at me briefly. "Alright, I'm always happy to get a day off," I said with a grin, ruffling the boys' hair as I walked past them to grab their now empty plates.

Naruto pouted while Sasuke smirked.

I raised an eyebrow at the pout, "Maa, Naru-chan, what's the matter?"

"Why are you so happy to get a day off?" His tone was bland, but I quickly gathered the meaning underneath him.

I walked back over to him and knelt down in front of him, putting me at his height. "Not a day off _from_ you, Naru-chan, but a day off from _training_ you. I would never tire of you, don't ever think like that." I grinned at him behind my mask and was pleased when he flashed me his trademark smile again.

"Okay Kitsune-neechan, but you'll have to train us again afterwards!" He said before he took off with Sasuke behind him to spar outside for a while.

I shook my head at the two before turning to Itachi who had an amused look on his face. "You handled that very well," He responded as he watched the two run off as well.

A small chuckle escaped my lips, "There was nothing to _handle_, all I said was the truth."

"I never said that it wasn't, Nariko," He stated before he helped me clean up the dishes. "When were you going to tell me that you were training Hinata as well?"

I sighed, "Sometimes I wonder why you weren't born a Nara."

He smirked at me, "If I was born a Nara you wouldn't put up with me."

"I find it hard to put up with you now," I growled faintly. "As for Hinata? I wasn't planning on telling you until you brought it up yourself since I am supposed to keep it a secret from everyone, including the Hokage. Hiashi-sama does not want the Hyuuga council to find out about her training and have her younger sister placed in the branch family."

"…So you offered to train her because…?"

I didn't respond for a few moments, "She's just like me, Itachi. She feels completely alone in the world and is trying so hard to be noticed, but she doesn't want to be noticed at the same time. She wants to protect her sister Hanabi from being tossed into the branch family, but she hid behind her mask of being weak for so long that she's begun to believe it herself."

"You used to think that you were weak?" Itachi interrupted me, an incredulous look on his face.

I smiled faintly behind my mask, "I used to think that I was a failure because I hadn't been strong enough to keep my parents alive. I thought that I was a failure to my brother because I wasn't strong enough to protect him from the villagers or anyone else for that matter. But then I met you…" I blushed faintly under my mask, "And suddenly all of that changed. And when I finally became my brother's guardian, he helped me change as well."

Itachi looked at me for a few moments before a mischievous grin spread across his face. "I'm glad that you no longer think of yourself that way, otherwise I have a feeling I would need to attack you right now and beat some sense into your stubborn head."

I smacked him on his shoulder, "Just keep hoping there, Itachi."

He was about to retaliate playfully when Naruto ran back into the house covered in mud. "Hey Kitsune-neechan, I just need to grab something…"

I narrowed my eyes in suspicion, "And what is it that you need to grab?"

He sent me a look as if it were obvious, "I forgot my kunai in my room, I'm going to get them."

I nodded briefly, still suspicious. I was certain that Naruto had brought his kunai outside with him at the start of the spar, so what was going on here? My eyes flickered to Itachi behind my mask, but his expression told me nothing.

So I watched as Naruto ran back outside, and then turned to Itachi and carried on our conversation over a cup of tea.

Eventually it began to grow late and I decided to go outside to get the boys, Itachi followed behind me with a very faint smile gracing his features.

As soon as I stepped out into the yard I knew that I had been tricked. Ninja wire wrapped around my body and kunai were flung at me as well. I didn't dodge, well, more like my _clone_ didn't dodge since I had substituted myself with a clone during the Naruto distraction earlier. The clone poofed into smoke and I heard two groans from the boys.

I had hid my chakra signal already, forcing the three to actually search me out, something that wasn't easy to do in a large training area full of trees. When Naruto and Sasuke had left the immediate area I decided to show myself and look over all of the traps the two had set. There were basic 'sticky' seals that would keep an opponent stuck to a certain spot until the seal was released or destroyed. Kunai and ninja wire traps were the most common, and at the end of my search, I was very pleased by how well the two had put everything together.

"You've been teaching them about traps then, Itachi?" I asked my partner after I had deconstructed several of the traps. "They're already pretty good at it."

"Traps and other things," He told me truthfully as he assisted in taking apart the kunai traps, leaving me to deal with the seals. "Your brother is figuring fuuinjutsu out pretty well; these seals were very well made."

I nodded with a smile, "One day he'll surpass me in them and will have to start learning more on his own."

Itachi nodded, but then glanced up as the two boys came running back to the clearing.

"You found all of our traps?" Naruto exclaimed with a small pout, "I was hoping that you'd miss at least one of them…"

I grinned, "Maa, Naru-chan, what kind of a guardian would I be if I couldn't find a few traps?" I held up a seal in my hand, "Not to mention using any traps on me in the surrounding area isn't the smartest plan."

Three confused looks were tossed my way and my grin widened. "It's a sensory seal, I've placed them all around the estate, anything that moves in the surrounding area is picked up by them, and if I tap into the seals I can find anything I want within the sealed area."

Naruto's mouth dropped open, "Will I eventually learn how to do that?"

"Of course you will Naru-chan, you have a ways to go until you get to this point though." I put the seal away before I turned back to the boys, "Now come on, it's time you two get ready for bed."

They nodded before running inside. Itachi sent me a slightly surprised look, "You really do excel in defensive seals, don't you?"

I nodded, "Defensive and healing seals are what I've dealt in for a while, I've never really had to use offensive seals since I can use most of my defensive seals against others as well. A good barrier seal can work just as well holding someone inside as it can keeping someone out, you just need to know how to apply them."

He shook his head faintly before following the boys inside, leaving me to follow last, shutting the door to the outside and activating the protective seal on it.

A brief pulse of my chakra when I shut the door ensured that all of my other seals were still in working order, and also showed me which seals would need more chakra within the coming up days.

Itachi and I spoke for a while about menial things, along with the fact that he would be going on another mission in the coming up days, leaving me to fend for myself once again. I did not mind though, we both knew how to cope.

* * *

**Nariko's POV, two years later**

**Nariko – seventeen and 1/2**

**Itachi – seventeen**

"**Rookie Nine" – ten**

"Alright Hinata, attack me." I announced as I dropped into a defensive stance, watching my student with keen eyes. It had been a little over two years since I had taken on her training and she had skipped ahead in leaps and bounds, although she still was only confident around me, her shyness around others had not worn away completely.

She stared at me now with her pale byakugan-enhanced eyes. She watched me, circling slowly around me while I remained still. Her hands were up in a traditional stance for the gentle fist, a taijutsu style utilized by the Hyuuga clan of Konoha. A few minutes of patient circling allowed her to get a grasp of my body, every twitch of my muscles.

The young Hyuuga rushed in to attack me, thrusting one open palm at me while blocking my attacks with her other hands.

I spun and ducked under her attacks knowing that if I allowed even one of her attacks to hit, I would be recovering for at least a few days. I was not worried about her defeating me, not in a taijutsu match, but I still would not allow myself to lose focus.

An hour passed and I stopped Hinata when I vanished away from my original spot to appear a few feet away. "Well done, Hinata-chan," I praised easily, "That was very well done! Your control over your movements was fluid, you did not let me push you off balance, and you did not give up. Your speed has also increased since last week, have you been training more on your own?"

She smiled, deactivating her byakugan in the process. "Yes, Kitsune-sensei, I have trained a little on my own when I am able. I go through the exercises you have shown me, they are getting easier each time I do them."

I smiled behind my mask, "Very good, when they get a little easier I will show you a few more exercises. I approached her and placed a hand on her head, peering down into her eyes, "You should be proud of yourself, Hinata-chan, you can now consider yourself on par with most of the other students in the academy with your current stamina and strength."

Her smile widened, pleased with my words. "You really think so?"

I nodded, "I will never lie to you, Hinata-chan," I said before I went to transform into my fox self.

Over the course of the two years I had altered my transformation jutsu to require slightly less chakra, and had also managed to make it so that I could strengthen my new form. I rippled my strong muscles and grinned foxily as they twitched under my shaggy blonde coat. I had been training in fox shape against Kyemi, and it honestly was coming along nicely, I could now maintain this shape for up to two hours without exhaustion setting in.

I took Hinata home easily, leaving her with a book on meditative taijutsu stances to try out.

I then decided to remain in fox shape while I made my way home, only changing back when I was close to the estate.

Walking through the door I was greeted with the sight of my brother pouring over his fuuinjutsu books, studying the sealing components with a focus that even I was jealous of. He was a natural at fuuinjutsu, and he wanted to be a master just like Jiraiya and myself. His competition with Shikamaru might also have played a part in his zealous attitude towards the subject.

I smiled as I thought of my other students. I had begun to teach basic fuuinjutsu to Shikamaru, knowing that he would soak up the subject easily. I had motivated him easily after I told him a few of the many uses for fuuinjutsu, uses that would make life easier for him.

Kiba had begun to learn how to extend his senses alongside Akamaru and they were moving along swiftly in the sense of smell. Their noses threatened to rival me after a few months of training, but I wasn't worried, I had more than smell in my arsenal.

Chouji, on the other hand, had gotten assistance from me in stamina, mostly. He was already learning a lot about his clan's taijutsu style from his father and my stamina training simply enhanced the training he was already receiving.

I glanced over at Sasuke who was sitting at the table next to Itachi having a serious conversation about genjutsu. His brother had begun to teach him some of the simple Uchiha-style genjutsu that didn't require use of the Sharingan to create.

None of them turned to look at me as I walked through the door, and it was only when my shadow fell over Naruto's shoulder that my brother noticed I was there. "Kitsune-neechan!" He cried out, turning to look up into my mask, "Where do you keep going every few days?"

My otouto's voice brought Itachi and Sasuke's attention out of their conversation and Sasuke nodded, agreeing with Naruto's question.

I sighed lightly, "I am taking care of something, but it's a secret so I'm not allowed to tell you." I ruffled his hair, "Now, why don't you show me what all you've learned from that book?"

He frowned at my answer but eventually gave in, happy to talk about fuuinjutsu with me while Itachi and Sasuke returned to their genjutsu conversation.

I smiled faintly behind my mask as I listened to my brother speak, finally noticing how close all of us had grown to one another. Naruto and Sasuke acted like brothers, and were each other's best friend. Naruto even thought of Itachi as his brother, just as Sasuke thought of me as a sister. I thought of Sasuke as a little brother as well, and I could tell that Itachi felt the same when he thought of Naruto.

We were a family, and I had a feeling that no one would have argued that statement.

* * *

"Damn it!" I growled as I fell flat on my face again. I had partially figured out my father's Hiraishin seal except for the fact that I still needed someone else to summon me in order for it to work.

I snarled as I pulled myself to my feet, glaring at the clone who had been summoning me for the past hour. She was biting back laughter, but at least she wasn't letting it out.

A sigh passed my lips as I got myself back in position a few meters away. My clone summoned me once more and I felt the pull on my body that told me I was being called. I allowed my body to submit to the pull and suddenly found myself right next to my clone before my body continued forward and I face planted once more.

I had finally figured out why my father had had such trouble figuring out the Hiraishin in the first place, the landings were freaking impossible.

I was getting better though; at least I no longer crashed into the trees five feet in front of me.

I nodded to my clone, determined to try again, slowly improving each time.

* * *

After another hour of training I had managed to avoid face planting, but I still had to stumble for a few steps in order to regain my balance. I was slowly getting the hang of landing, which was a relief, except for the fact that even if I perfected this technique it still would not be the Hiraishin.

I sighed as I dispelled my clone, grabbing the metal summoning seal as she dropped it. My eyes briefly flickered over the sealing array before I put the seal in my pocket, I would work on landing again tomorrow, but I had other things I needed to do at the moment. Not to mention that I needed to put more chakra into the summoning seal, it was all dried out due to my training.

* * *

"I take it you've been working hard?" Itachi asked me as he walked through the door later, seeing the dust and dirt all over my arms and clothes. I had ditched my trench coat already, having not wanted to deal with it at the moment.

I nodded, "Yeah," my response was brief.

My partner's eyes narrowed, "What have you been training in anyways to get you so dirty?"

My trademark grin flashed across my face, "It's a secret, Itachi, and why would I give up my secrets?"

He looked at me in suspicion, "You'll tell me eventually."

"Still doesn't mean that I'll tell you right now, you'll have to earn that knowledge."

He rolled his eyes with a sigh, "Are you planning on picking up the boys today or do you want me to?"

I thought about that for a few moments, "I'll get them today; none of the others are coming over for training today anyways."

"Which reminds me, what is your plan for training for the rest of the week?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "I was thinking about giving them a few days off, honestly, they've been training more than they've been going out to hang with their friends."

He nodded at me, "Sounds good to me."

I took off my mask for a moment to kiss him lightly, "Good, because I wasn't exactly giving you a choice." I replaced my mask and walked away, going to pick up the boys.

* * *

I picked up Sasuke and Naruto after school that day, after I had spoken with Hinata about giving her a few days break from training. I gave the same speech to the other boys, notifying them that Naruto and Sasuke would also have the rest of the week off.

I also had decided to alter my training days so that all of them were given individual days of the week to work with me while the others practiced various tasks together. Now that they all had gotten past basic chakra control and taijutsu skills, I figured it was about time I individualized their training even more. Sure I had begun to teach different things to each of the boys, but I had found out that the way I was doing it wasn't very effective in the long run.

So now they would all get a few hours alone with me on their specific days instead of a few minutes every here and there.

Hinata would still be given days of her own, and I had also begun to teach her on weekends when she didn't have to go to the academy. I smiled behind my mask, of all of my 'students', Hinata was progressing the fastest, and I had noticed that she was no longer as shy around other people, although she still had a hard time speaking to my brother.

I said goodbye to the group of boys that I had assisted in training, both of my boys walking slightly in front of me. They did not stray from my sight, something that Itachi and I had drilled into their heads swiftly after the Uchiha massacre. Although Naruto had already learned that lesson, after the first time that I lost him and ended up saving him a beating by a few drunken civilians. I had barely held in my rage when I saw one of them pull back a fist to aim it at my otouto.

My gray-blue eyes flickered to his yellow-haired body. That was also the first time he called me Kitsune-neechan, the time that he had finally decided to put faith into trusting me. A faint, gentle smile crossed my hidden features. The first time that he knew I was there to defend him from anything.

A scuffle from my right pulled my attention back to my surroundings, and I saw a few civilians approaching Naruto who was a few feet further away from me than normal, looking at something in a store window. I drew a line out in front of me on the ground with my right foot, the movement releasing the wind chakra that I had swiftly gathered, the released wind chakra 'gently' swept the civilians' feet out from under them and left them on their rumps on the ground. They finally took notice of me standing relaxed a few feet away, glared, and ran. Naruto hadn't even noticed anything that had happened, having kept his attention on the store window the entire time. Sasuke, however, had noticed, and he was staring at me intently.

"Is something the matter, Sasuke-chan?" I spoke softly to him, my eyes fully alert on my surroundings once more.

He stared at me for a few more moments, "Why do people keep trying to attack Naruto, and why do you defend him so secretively?"

I shrugged faintly, my eyes not leaving my charge at the moment, "Eventually I will tell Naruto why people try to attack him, and it will be his choice whether or not to tell you. As for why I defend him secretively? I do so because it is my job; I am not here to create a scene every time some idiot decides to forget that there is someone watching out for Naruto. I also do not need Naruto to know how many close calls he truthfully runs into on a daily basis, he would never have a semi-normal childhood if he did."

Sasuke glanced at my out of the corner of his eye for another second. "But if he doesn't know the true danger he's in, won't he not be prepared for it when he becomes a genin?"

I chuckled, "By the time he becomes a genin he will be able to take care of himself, and it isn't as if he'll be alone. You, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Kiba will all be there for him as well. Not to mention whoever becomes his jounin-sensei, myself, Itachi, and the other members of this village who care for him."

The young Uchiha started at that, "I've never noticed other people glance at Naruto with a caring look."

"That's because you don't always see them. Some of them are anbu, like myself, and others are jounin and chuunin who Naruto has touched in some way. Iruka-sensei is one of them, the Ichiraku family another, they watch out for him when I am unable to do so." _'Not to mention Jiraiya, Kakashi, Hokage-jiji, and many jounin of my father's generation' _I thought to myself as Naruto finally turned away from the shop window and hurried back to us, ignoring the glares that were sent his way.

"So what were you looking at?" I asked him curiously as he returned.

He smiled at me, "Oh, it wasn't anything too important, I was just curious about something."

I could tell that he was lying, but I wouldn't snoop, he would tell me eventually. I watched as Sasuke and Naruto moved further ahead of me, in my sight lines, but just out of my hearing range amid all of the other chatter of the busy street. They were planning something, and I was curious, but I wasn't about to eavesdrop, I knew best of all that some things needed to remain secret, at least for a time.

* * *

The two boys went into Naruto's room to 'study' for an 'upcoming exam' as soon as we got home. I rolled my eyes at their lie, but decided to ignore them and work on dinner, doing it myself instead of using a clone for once.

Itachi entered sometime after that, notifying me that he would be leaving on a week long mission the next morning, and decided that he wished to spar with me one last time before he left.

So I ended up creating a clone to finish cooking dinner anyhow, allowing Itachi to drag me deeper into the training grounds to a place I had placed barrier seals around so that none of our haywire attacks would cause any damage. I, luckily, had filled them with chakra a few nights prior and so simply had to activate them, leaving me with a decently full stock of chakra to spar with Itachi.

He started out by attacking me blatantly, something that took me off guard, normally Itachi waited for me to make the first move, not the other way around. I barely managed to dodge his attack, but caught my balance once more and turned around to attack him. I lightened my gravity seals faintly, but only enough to put my speed on par with Itachi's, I was looking for a challenge, and unless Itachi used his Sharingan, my full speed wouldn't really give me a challenge.

His next attack consisted of several fireballs that I ended up having to use a suiton jutsu against, he grinned, knowing that suiton jutsu were taxing for me to use, especially since I had not mastered using my water chakra yet.

I dodged the next few attacks by running towards Itachi, catching him off guard with my move. I decided then to switch up my fighting style, using a more fluid-based style on him. It was something that I had picked up from watching Hinata spar against my clones, and from memories of watching my mother when she sparred against my father.

It focused more on dance and whip-like movements rather than the harsh jabs and swift attacks that I had designed based off of my dad's fighting style. This style, however, gave me a better defense, while it decreased the openings I could make for an offensive move. Yet using it on someone who had gotten completely used to my normal fighting style was quite effective.

I grinned behind my mask as I caught Itachi off guard, forcing him to go defensive while I molded my two styles together to defend and attack. It was difficult for me to do, since I had just thought of molding my styles together, and Itachi ended up managing to get a few hits on me because of it.

We ended an hour later, panting heavily from our spar. "Tie?" I asked my partner breathlessly, pleased when he nodded in the same manner. It was something that happened often between us, rarely did either of us actually 'win' against the other any more. I smiled widely, it seemed that we were finally equals on the battle field, something I had been striving to accomplish for years.

Sure, I had won spars every now and then years back, but only when they were taijutsu or kenjutsu only, when genjutsu or ninjutsu had been allowed… I had almost always lost. We had made it a point though, to ban fuuinjutsu from all of our spars, since most of my seals had gained deadly backups in case of tampering.

Although… my fingers brushed against the metal summoning seal in my pocket and I smiled faintly, would the Hiraishin eventually be added to the banned list along with Itachi's Sharingan and my fuuinjutsu seals? My eyes glittered, probably; it wasn't exactly a technique to be used against one's comrades.

* * *

Itachi and I walked through the doors of the estate and were greeted with the sight of a meal already set up by my clone. She dispelled herself after I entered the house and I finished dishing up the food that she had made.

The boys left Naruto's room soon after that, the smell of the food must have finally reached that side of the house, notifying them that dinner was ready. Itachi sat down to eat, just before the boys did the same. I sat down at the table as well, next to Itachi, for whatever conversation would occur. As always, I would eat after everyone else was finished, since I wasn't one who enjoyed being left out of pleasant dinner conversations.

"Can Sasuke and I hang out with the others tomorrow?" Naruto asked brightly, speaking up for his quieter companion sitting beside him.

I glanced at Itachi before I nodded, "I don't have any problems with that, that's one of the main reasons I gave you guys a week off of training."

My partner nodded, "It'll be good for you two to get out with your friends for a few days."

The two boys exchanged a look with one another, a look that had my curiosity growing every second. I _really_ wanted to know what the two of them were planning, but, at the same time, I almost didn't. Knowing Naruto, it could just be an elaborate prank, but if Sasuke was getting involved? It either would be a very large-scale prank, or something completely different.

I sighed softly, seeing Itachi smirk when he was the only one who caught the faint exhale of breath. This was going to be very troublesome… And then I had to bite back another sigh as I growled at the Nara line.

* * *

The next morning came sooner than I had wanted it to. Itachi ended up waking me up, which ended up in him dodging a few senbon that sat beside my bed. I ended up apologizing to him for nearly killing him, since neither of us had realized that they were my poisoned senbon until the wall had deteriorated slightly where the needles had hit, which ended up in my needing to repair yet another piece of the mansion.

Itachi left shortly after that, having kissed me goodbye before he left to greet his team for the mission.

Which, of course, left me wide awake… two hours before I normally woke up. I sighed and decided to simply use the extra two hours to meditate; a little extra soothing training couldn't hurt in a day, could it?

* * *

Alarm clocks ringing inside the house brought me out of my quiet meditation, one of the only times that I was able to truly relax during my hectic days. With a gentle sigh I gracefully got to my feet and entered the kitchen to start making breakfast for the two boys.

* * *

I honestly don't know what it was that triggered my reactions that morning during Naruto's daily 'attack'. He had remained completely silent, using Sasuke's footsteps as a cover, his scent was masked professionally, and he moved easily enough that I hadn't even felt him approach.

However, I still managed to duck underneath his punch and slide in behind him, catching his arm with one of my own. Truthfully I was astonished by my own movements, having not expected my own reactions.

Naruto pouted like he did every morning but I made it up to him by explaining how his stealth had definitely improved and that if I had been anyone else, his attack probably would have hit. Of course, if I were actively searching for chakra signals his attack would have been very simple to dodge, but as an academy student I wasn't about to teach him about masking his chakra.

The two boys ate at their normal paces, chatting with each other lightly as they did so. I smiled proudly at the sight; just over two years ago anyone would have laughed at the thought of Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke being best friends, no, brothers in all but blood. It had started out as a simple rivalry and had only progressed to friendship after Naruto's reaction towards the Uchiha massacre.

My blue-gray eyes flickered across my brother's face. He had instantly figured out how to comfort Sasuke, and after sharing his life story with Sasuke, the friendship had begun to blossom. A few months later had them doing more and more together, and eventually Sasuke even began to help Naruto with a few of his more… elaborate, pranks.

Itachi had practically collapsed in shock the first time he walked in on Sasuke helping Naruto plan a prank. The look on his face had been priceless, but eventually he had simply begun to laugh.

I pushed away the memories and returned to find both boys grabbing their bags and heading to the front door, still chatting away about the right and wrong way to cast a henge.

They exited the estate before me, as always, allowing me to shut the door, a pulse of my chakra ensuring that all of the seals inside were still active.

The walk to the academy that morning was pleasantly quiet, and I was happy that I did not have to deal with any crazed civilians for once. They had really begun to get on my nerves; really, did they _not_ see the anbu walking beside her charge? It was almost laughable that people could be so blinded by their hatred that they blocked out everything else around them. My eyes narrowed behind my foxy mask, a shinobi learned that lesson early on or they never learned it at all. A shinobi blinded by hatred was a shinobi asking for death.

I raised a hand in farewell to the boys as they trotted off to group up with their friends. Hinata saw me as well and tossed me a faint smile before turning to walk towards a few of the other girls whom she had become friends with.

With a gentle smile gracing my features, I turned and walked away, deciding to run a few errands before returning to my training for the day.

* * *

I snarled in my impatience as my clone summoned me again. I felt the normal pull of being summoned, and I submitted myself to it, managing to stick the landing, before barely dodging an attack by another of my clones. A well placed jab to the back of my clones' neck caused her to poof away into smoke.

A sigh passed my lips as I leapt across the clearing, nodding to the clone that would be summoning me. My reactions had been improving, but I still was unable to completely submit to my natural instincts. As a shinobi used to fighting against Itachi and Kakashi I had heightened my reaction time, but for this level of 'Hiraishin' I needed to ditch my reaction time and rely on instincts, instincts that had apparently been heightened during the many times that people had attempted to sneak up on me… or wake me up.

I growled as I submitted to the summoning and immediately allowing my body to drop into a roll, ducking under the attacks of three of my clones. Spinning, I summoned my swords to my hands and swiftly sliced through my clones, gaining their memories of my attempt. It was closer to what I was looking for… but I wasn't about to go to the next level of my father's technique until I mastered this.

Creating a few more clones I prepared myself for another go at the technique, I would only be able to master it through practice, lots of practice.

* * *

An alarm rang from a rock nearby and I sighed, dispelling my clones and collecting the metal summoning seal. I stared at the sealing array for a few moments before I tucked the metal into my pocket, heading towards the house in order to work on a few of my sealing arrays before the boys returned for dinner.

* * *

I sniffed at the pleasant smelling food in front of me and glanced at the clock nearby with a small sigh. The boys were slightly later than I had expected, but I wasn't too worried, I knew that the group of boys could handle themselves against civilians if needed, and that there were plenty of Konoha ninja who would intervene if they ran into something they couldn't handle.

A flutter in my mind caused me to look up, having not heard the front door open at all. When the traps did not activate, I got to my feet and walked into the doorway to find the large group of boys, all apparently looking to eat dinner here. My lips twitched at the eyes that Kiba, Chouji, and Naruto were giving me.

Kiba could obviously smell my cooking; Chouji was simply hungry, and Naruto? He probably just wanted the company. Shikamaru had probably been dragged along for the ride, and Sasuke knew that I wasn't about to turn any of them away.

"Are you all going to sit in the front room all night long or are you going to eat before the food gets cold?" I said with humor laced through my voice. I turned my back on the group, grabbing three extra plates to set at the table. The boys were all there by the time I had placed the plates on the table, and I watched as they all dished up the food for themselves while I sat down and listened in to their conversations.

I had sat myself down at the head of the table, Naruto taking his place at my right, Sasuke sitting on Naruto's right. Kiba sat across from me, Chouji sitting next to him, leaving Shikamaru with the seat to my left.

"So Kitsune-san, how was your day today?" Shikamaru asked after a while, the others carrying on their conversation normally.

I shrugged my shoulders faintly, "It was busy as usual, but I managed to make some headway on a jutsu that I am learning."

At the words 'jutsu' and 'learning' all conversation at the table stopped and turned to Shikamaru's and mine. "What jutsu are you learning Kitsune-neechan?" Naruto piped in, curious.

I smiled behind my mask, "It's a secret, Naru-chan, although I'll show you once I have mastered it."

That seemed to quench his curiosity slightly and he nodded before turning back to speak with his other friends.

"What brings you to ask about my day, Shikamaru?" I asked the intelligent boy curiously. He normally didn't start conversations, stating that it was too 'troublesome' for him.

He shrugged at me, "I felt like it."

My eyes narrowed, "That seems highly unlikely, but I'll let it slide for now." I responded, grinning at the twitch of one of his eyes before he reentered the conversation with the rest of his friends.

After a while of conversation and eating, everyone but Naruto and Sasuke left with Kagura, leaving me to clean up after dinner.

Sasuke and Naruto had left to Naruto's room as well after everyone else had left, and I knew that they were up to something, but I had a feeling that it wasn't a prank.

* * *

Later that night I found out what it was when the two of them approached me, a bundle of sorts held in Naruto's hands. He held it out to me with a grin and I looked at him in confusion, but took the package anyways.

Unwrapping the bundle slowly revealed a few different items; the first was a new brush from Shikamaru _'noticed your brush was getting pretty old'_ was the note that went with it. The next item was a book of recipes from Chouji _'thought you might like to try some of these sometime'_ I guessed that he had probably gotten most of his recipes from his father or other clanmates. The third item was a blade-repair kit _'Naruto told me you used a few swords, thought this might come in handy'_. The last item was from both Naruto and Sasuke.

I unwrapped it and blinked a few times before grinning at the necklace I held out in front of me. It was a choker of sorts, something that wouldn't get in the way during a battle, made up of a thick black ribbon with a black and crimson red pendant on it. The pendant though… now that was a work of art. It was an elegant design of black and red flames of different shades and lengths. And the flames swirled in places as well, something that reminded me of the symbols for wind.

"This… this is beautiful." I finally managed to say as I turned to look at the two smiling boys in front of me. "Thank you." I told both of them before I gently set the items down and pulled them close, embracing both of them. "You didn't have to do this though."

They drew away from me then, and to my surprise it was Sasuke who spoke up. "We did this to thank you for everything you've done for all of us, Kitsune-neechan, especially since you don't ever ask for anything in return."

Naruto nodded along with Sasuke, his grin widening, if that was even possible.

My own smile grew behind my mask, and I picked up the necklace again, fixing it into place around my neck and moving my hitai-ate to my left arm. "Thank you for it all the same." I told them gently before I waved them off, "Now get ready for bed, it's getting late and you still have school tomorrow."

They both grinned before the raced off to their own rooms, leaving me to smile softly on my own, overjoyed by the gifts I had been given.

* * *

**And that's it for this chapter, I'm sorry if you were looking for more, ^^;**

**Anyways, I felt a need to add that touching last scene to this fanfic. Nariko went most of her life on her own despite having Jiraiya watching out for her, and now she's been given a family, one that keeps growing. Itachi loves her for who she is, Naruto and Sasuke both think of her as their sister (even though Naruto actually is her sister) and Shikamaru, Kiba, Chouji, and Hinata are all happy to have her as well. Not to mention the fact that Sarutobi is akin to a grandfather in her eyes, Jiraiya is an uncle to her, and Kakashi is her older brother. **

**Next chapter will probably skip to graduation from the academy since nothing much else really happens between here and there…**

**Please review! It's what I live on! ^^**


	10. Chapter 9

**So sorry for the wait for last chapter, I ended up naming a few of my files wrong and so had to sort through all of the thousands of documents in order to find these chapters, ^^;**

**Disclaimer; I don't own Naruto**

* * *

**Nariko's POV, two years later, day of Academy graduation**

**Nariko – nineteen**

**Itachi – eighteen, almost nineteen**

**Naruto and Sasuke – twelve**

"Come on you lazy fiends!" I growled to the two boys who were hastily grabbing everything they needed for the exam. "If you two are late you won't be able to graduate from the academy," I sighed as I turned to look at a very amused Itachi. "You should be helping," I growled lightly at him as I herded the two out of the mansion.

"You had it covered," He responded to me with a small smile.

I flushed behind my mask; he had definitely grown into that smile. I said nothing as I turned back to the boys, seeing that they were finally ready.

"Kitsune-neechan, can we race all the way there today?" Naruto asked me with a bright smile.

I turned to Itachi who sighed, knowing that Naruto and I would be effectively ditching the two Uchihas in our race. Turning back to Naruto I ruffled his hair, "I'll give you a head start," I told him, watching as he took off immediately. "See you there then!" I called back to Sasuke and Itachi as I sped off after Naruto, catching up to him easily.

After that, I set the speed and watched as Naruto adjusted his pace to mine each and every time, until the academy came into view, and then he took off on his own, legs beating powerfully against the ground as he tried to beat me.

I let him, of course, but I was only a second behind him, not that many people would have differentiated very easily. The blonde in front of me panted lightly as he got his breath back, a smile painted easily across his face while we waited for Sasuke and Itachi to show up, both of them having traveled at their own pace.

When they arrived Itachi and I shoved them off towards their friends who were waving them over.

"How do you think they'll do?" Itachi asked me as we walked away at a normal pace.

I shrugged, "Sasuke will do fine no matter what they throw at him, but…" I sighed sadly, "If they test on the bunshin jutsu again, Naruto won't do very well." Despite having better than normal chakra control, my brother just had too much chakra for the bunshin jutsu. "We'll have to wait and see what happens though, he tends to surprise everyone."

Itachi smiled, "Yes that he does."

* * *

**Naruto's POV, after exams…**

'_Damn it! Why did they have to test on the bunshin jutsu…'_ I thought angrily to myself, sitting on my swing by myself while everyone else was congratulated about their new hitai-ate. I saw Sasuke try to walk over to me only to almost be bowled over by his fanclub.

That was when Mizuki-sensei approached me. "Hey, Naruto, why don't you come with me for a bit?"

I shrugged and followed him, letting him lead me to the balcony of a tall building. "Iruka-sensei's tough, but he isn't against you," He told me an a sympathetic voice as he looked out across the forest surrounding Konoha.

"Then why? Why did he fail only me?" I asked, hurt inside.

"He wants you to be strong with all of his heart, but that won't happen if he goes easy on you. He's like you, ya know? No parents…no family."

I thought about that for a few moments, I had a family, but… not a family in the way most people thought of one. "But… I _really_ wanted to graduate!"

That was when my sensei began to chuckle lightly, "Then I guess I'll have to tell you a secret." He turned to look at me, "There's another way to graduate from the academy, but it's only ever given to special students. Now here's what you need to do..."

* * *

I panted as I settled down on the forest floor, a grin on my face as I held the large scroll in my hands. It had almost been too easy to steal the scroll from Hokage-jiji, one simple oiroke no jutsu was all I needed in order to get past him. Serves him right for being such a perverted old man…

I opened the scroll to the beginning and my grin widened, now I just needed to learn a jutsu from it and Iruka-sensei would have to let me graduate!

* * *

**Nariko's POV**

"What do you mean that you haven't seen Naruto?" I barely restrained myself from shouting at Iruka as my mind immediately went to the worst possible scenario. "Nevermind, I'll find him," I cut him off before jumping away swiftly, hoping to find him before something bad happened.

My mind didn't even think about summoning Kyemi to help me find my brother, her nose was far better than mine, but that didn't cross my mind. I was frantic, panicking for the first time in a long time. Where the hell could he be?!

* * *

**Itachi's POV**

"Naruto has stolen the scroll of sealing; he is to be brought back here immediately!" The third Hokage announced to the group of Konoha nin in front of him. I, of course, was among them.

My eyes flickered lightly around the room for a sign of my yellow-haired girlfriend, but I saw no signs of her. She had either not been told about this problem, or she was already out searching for her troublemaking brother. And, depending on what she had figured out, she was either frantic, or furious.

I sighed lightly before I shunshined away and started searching the village for any sign of the burnt orange and black outfit that Nariko had finally persuaded Naruto to wear. I faintly wished that she had left Naruto alone until at least after tonight, vibrant orange would have been easier to find in this nighttime darkness.

* * *

**Naruto's POV**

"Found you!" I heard Iruka's voice and I turned to look at him, a grin on my face.

"Wow you're fast sensei! I'm gonna show you this awesome jutsu and you're gonna let me graduate, that's how this works, right? Anyone who learns a jutsu from the scroll passes."

"Wh-what are you talking about Naruto?" Why was sensei looking so confused?

I frowned slightly, "Mizuki-sensei told me about it, he told me where to find the scroll and to come here with it… why are you looking so shocked?" I cocked my head to the side in confusion.

All of the sudden several kunai came flying towards us but Iruka-sensei pushed me out of the way, getting hit by a few of them in the process.

"So you've found us, Iruka," Mizuki said from where he knelt on a branch nearby.

Iruka growled, his eyes angry, "I should have known!"

"Don't beat yourself up," Mizuki exclaimed before turning towards me, "Now give me the scroll Naruto!"

I stepped back, holding the scroll tight to my chest. "What's going on?" I asked in confusion, why were my sensei fighting each other?

"Naruto, don't let Mizuki get the scroll! It contains forbidden jutsu that can put this village in danger; he used you to get the scroll for himself!" Iruka said as he breathed hard, pulling out a kunai as he did so.

"Don't listen to him Naruto, he's just trying to scare you because he doesn't want you to graduate."

I turned to look at Iruka who yelled at Mizuki, something about not lying. But then Mizuki started to laugh and say something different. Iruka-sensei cried out, but Mizuki-sensei kept speaking.

"They've been lying to you your whole life Naruto, ever since the decree twelve years ago!" Mizuki shouted; a cruel smile on his face.

I was really confused, especially when Iruka-sensei said something about the information being forbidden.

"The decree… is that no one can tell you the nine-tailed fox is inside you!" Mizuki shouted over Iruka-sensei's shouting. "The fox spirit that killed Iruka's parents and destroyed our village is inside of you! You are the nine-tailed fox!"

I stepped back, shocked, was I really the nine-tailed fox?

"Stop it!" Iruka shouted.

"They've all been sneaking around hiding things from you your whole life! Didn't you think it was strange how the treated you? Like dirt! Like they hated you for just being alive!"

I stared in shock before I began to form a jutsu, forcefully drowning out what was being said. That was when I felt Iruka-sensei collide into me, a large shuriken embedded into his back.

* * *

**Naruto's POV, skipping to end of scene since it's same as the anime…**

"He's not a monster fox! He's Uzumaki Naruto of Konoha!" I heard Iruka-sensei shout and I looked out from behind the tree to see Mizuki-sensei untying another large shuriken in order to finish Iruka-sensei off.

"What an idiot you are, Iruka. I said that I would finish you off after I took care of Naruto, but I take that back, this ends now!"

I jumped out from behind Mizuki and punched him, panting as I did so. "Don't you dare lay a finger on Iruka-sensei!" I growled, "Or I'll kill you!" I felt angry and slightly scared at the same time.

Mizuki goaded me on and I formed the hand sign for the jutsu Kitsune-neechan had taught me. "Multi-shadow clone jutsu!" I called out, watching as hundreds of shadow clones appeared around me. "What's the matter? Come and get me!" All of my clones cried at once. "No? Then we'll come to you!"

My clones punched and kicked Mizuki until they all dissipated, leaving me with a very small headache and a very bruised, unconscious Mizuki. "Hehe, I might have gone too far," I said sheepishly.

"Come here Naruto, I want to give you something…"

* * *

**Nariko's POV**

"Damn it, he went this way!" I growled as I picked up on Naruto's scent trail, not missing the smells of sweat, fear, and blood mixing in with it. I could catch Iruka and Mizuki's scents mixing in there as well, confusing me slightly.

That was when I came upon the sight of a very bloody Mizuki, a barely conscious Iruka, and my brother proudly wearing Iruka's hitai-ate. I rolled my eyes as I went over to the two, green chakra flaring around my hand before either of them noticed me. Both of them seemed to be better than my mind had imagined, but they still needed some sort of medical attention. "Would someone mind filling me in about why there is an unconscious Mizuki, a very injured Iruka, and a forbidden scroll all in the same clearing?" I started to heal Iruka, ignoring his cries to heal Naruto first. I rolled my eyes behind my mask; my brother was already fully healed, if he had even been hit in the first place.

"W-well, um, Kitsune-neechan, I failed the exam today…" I turned to look at Naruto who was looking so down in the dumps that my heart went out to him. "And then Mizuki-sensei told me that there was another way to graduate if I managed to grab the forbidden scroll and learn a technique from it. But the first technique was the Kage Bunshin that you taught me a few years ago, and then Iruka-sensei showed up." He paused for a bit, "He got hurt when he tried to protect me from Mizuki's kunai and then he told me that I was the demon fox…"

Iruka looked at me with a faintly worried glance before he spoke up, taking over for my brother. "But Naruto eventually came in to protect me by using the Kage Bunshin technique to defeat Mizuki who, as you can see, is now unconscious. Believing that Naruto is actually ready to become a ninja based on his actions today, I graduated him."

I smiled behind my mask and turned to ruffle Naruto's hair, shocking him with the movement. He stared at me with wide eyes, and I noticed that Iruka was looking at me in a new light as well. "What, you didn't think I was acting all of these past years, did you?" He smiled at me, "And congratulations on graduating, Naru-chan."

I turned with a huff to face the unconscious Mizuki, "I suppose I should do something about him though…" I sighed miserably, "Why don't you two go to Ichiraku's? I'll meet you there after I'm done handing this criminal over and giving them what you two told me." I turned to glance at Iruka, "You do know that they'll require your report about what you saw tomorrow, right?"

He nodded somberly, but lightened up when Naruto began to cheer about getting Ichiraku's.

I took a very unconscious Mizuki in and told the Hokage to call off all his 'dogs' because the culprit was caught, after being taken down by Naruto. I had a feeling that certain people wouldn't be too happy with the idea, but oh well; Naruto wasn't the monster they believed him to be.

* * *

True to my word, I met up with Naruto and Iruka at Ichiraku's, the two had already finished eating, which was good, seeing as how I wanted to get home and talk to Naruto about everything that had happened.

So my brother and I began to walk home with me walking very close to his side, slightly behind him as well. A few ninja glared at us, but I looked directly at them with my fox mask and they disappeared pretty quickly.

"I know you told me most of it… but what exactly happened, Naru-chan?" I asked softly as we arrived at the mansion. I led my brother around back so that I could talk to him without Itachi or Sasuke coming out.

He looked away from me, an odd look on his face. "Naru-chan?" I asked again, this time barely hiding the worry in my voice.

"Kitsune-neechan… am I, am I the nine-tailed fox?" He asked me, his voice nearly breaking my heart.

That was when I decided to screw the rules; I removed my mask in front of Naruto and ignored his stare as I grabbed his shoulders, forcing him to look into my eyes. "No, Naruto, you are not the nine-tailed fox." I shut my eyes for a few moments, wondering how I was going to explain everything. "How should I put this, you are… the container for the fox, a jinchuuriki, he is sealed within you, but you are not him."

"_**Not that being me would be a bad thing…"**_ Kurama spoke up in my mind, obviously having woken up in all the commotion.

"_Shut up Rama, you aren't helping right now,"_ I growled in my mind before turning to Naruto to see his reaction.

"The fox is… sealed within me?" He asked, fear in his eyes, "but why would the fourth Hokage seal the fox in me? What's so special about me?"

I smiled faintly, if only he knew how special he truly was. "He sealed the fox in you because he knew he could trust you not to abuse it, and he knew he could trust you to keep its power in check." I bit my lip for a moment, struggling with the rest, "You know what? Close your eyes for a moment."

He looked at me oddly, but did as I asked, and I knocked him out swiftly with a bit of chakra to his forehead. I then created a clone to watch over us on the patio while I delved deep into my mind and then into my link with Kurama.

I opened my eyes to see Kurama staring down at me, a cage surrounding him and me, with Naruto on the other side of it. "Naru-chan!" I called out, drawing his attention to the cage and how I was casually leaning against Rama's chest. "Please meet Kurama, Rama please formally meet Naruto, your jinchuuriki."

Naruto almost pissed his pants when he saw me inside the cage. "Neechan, get out of there!" He shouted at me, worry marking his face.

I sighed as I got to my feet and headed towards the cage bars. "That is easier said than done, Naru-chan," I told him seriously as I stopped in front of the bars. "You see, I am not in your mind, but in Kurama's here, he and I share a sort of connection…" I looked at Rama for help.

"_**Kitsune**_** here is correct, she cannot leave this cage just as I cannot," **He spoke up in his gravelly voice. **"But I also will not hurt her, or you for that matter." **With those words, the great red fox laid down and huffed loudly. **"You kits are too boisterous for me, leave," **He growled before pushing both of us out gently.

My eyes opened once more, except this time they opened to the night sky above me and my clone whom dispelled herself as soon as she noticed that I was awake. "So, Naru-chan, how was your visit with the great Kyuubi no Youko?"

He stared at me, eyes wide, "You're alive, he didn't hurt you, he… he… wow," He fell to the ground on his butt, staring at me as if I had grown a second head.

"So… you share a _connection_ with him? How does that work?" He asked once he had finally gotten over his initial shock.

"Well, it all started with my mother," I said slowly, "You see, she was his last jinchuuriki, and she was pregnant with me while having him sealed inside of her. His presence inside of her affected me in my development stages and now Kurama, the Kyuubi, now thinks of me as his kit. Because of him I have heightened senses, the fox contract, and a connection to his mind. I can speak to him at will just as he can speak to me. Through him I can also contact his jinchuuriki, which at this very moment, is you."

Naruto stayed silent for a few moments as he took everything in. "So… is… Kurama, good?"

I grinned foxily, "I wouldn't ever use 'good' to describe Rama, but he will not harm either of us. Like I said, he views us as his kits, and while he might act rough or angry at times, he would never hurt us. Other people he detests, however, which is why the fourth Hokage sealed him inside of you in order to protect the Leaf village. Kurama cannot hurt anyone from inside of you, but if people walk in your mind, he can."

He narrowed his eyes, "So… is that why you didn't treat me like all of the other villagers?"

I shook my head lightly, "That was part of the reason, but… that isn't all of it," I smiled down at the ground, slightly worried as to how he would take the next bit of news I was about to throw on him. "Naruto, I'm actually your sister by blood. My real name is Nariko."

My otouto stared at me. "So… I'm not an orphan?"

I closed my eyes, shaking my head lightly. "No, Naru-chan, both of our parents are dead, but you are not the only orphan of your family."

"You knew our parents, didn't you? Can you tell me anything about them?" His eyes were pleading, but…

"Not tonight, Naru-chan, maybe in a few days." I said softly, fighting to hide the pain in my eyes. "But… are you angry at me for not telling you sooner?"

He shook his head, forgiving me instantly, "No, I'm sure you had your reasons, and besides, even if I didn't know you were my sister, you still made me feel loved as if I were your brother."

I smiled softly at him again, "Thank you," I said as I pulled him tightly to my chest, so glad to finally be able to.

"You'll have to tell me more later, Nariko-neechan, but I need to get some sleep tonight!"

I nodded as my younger brother trotted into the house with my following him slowly, my mask held limply in my hands.

Itachi stared at me for a few moments before a faint smile appeared on his lips, but he remained silent until Naruto disappeared into his room. "So you finally told him?" He asked me.

I smiled sheepishly and nodded, "Not like I had much of a choice with Mizuki spouting off that Naruto was the Kyuubi to his face." I said quietly, "So I proved to him that Rama wasn't as bad, towards us at least, as most people thought, and then I told him that I was his actual sister."

"He took it well?"

My smile widened at his words, "More than well, I'd say. He was not angry at all, but he does want me to tell him everything eventually, I just don't know if I'm ready to tell him more right now…"

"That's to be expected, Nariko," Itachi said as he walked towards me, "Anyhow, guess who will be our brothers' genin sensei?" His mouth twitched in amusement.

I narrowed my eyes, "I doubt its Jiraiya, but from your expression it's someone I know…" I ticked off on my fingers the people that I knew personally. "Jiji can't, everyone in anbu can't…" I froze, "Kakashi?"

Itachi chuckled, "Yep, and they are on a team together as we expected they would be. Their third teammate is a Haruno Sakura."

I groaned lightly, "Great, so their teacher is a semi-lazy pervert and their third teammate is a fangirl." I sighed, "Well, it'll be a good challenge for the two."

My boyfriend nodded, "Kakashi will kick them all into gear, although he'll be in for a slight surprise when it comes to our brothers."

"I know, a dead last who shouldn't have been dead last, and an Uchiha who isn't dark and dreary, what is this world coming to?"

Itachi chuckled again but came over to me and pulled me close, kissing me lightly as he did so.

"I'll be turning in my anbu resignation tomorrow and will be registering as a jounin within Konoha," I said when we separated. "I'll start taking small missions as needed, nothing too long though, so probably missions similar to the ones I went on with you."

The dark-haired Uchiha stared at me for a moment, "And you'll be alright?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, "I can kick your ass in taijutsu and tie with you in ninjutsu and you ask if I'll be alright? I can run faster than you, I have quite a few tricks up my sleeve, and I've got some back-up plans in case anything goes wrong." I smiled at him after a few seconds of silence, "Besides, I've got something I need to show you tomorrow!" I gave him a quick kiss before I smirked at him and trotted off to my room.

* * *

I closed the door to my room lightly, before I placed my mask down on my dresser, smiling as I picked up the picture of my parents and myself as I did so.

"You both would be proud of Naruto for who he is becoming," I spoke softly to the two faces that I had long since been able to see in the flesh. "He protected someone precious to him today, Iruka, his teacher at the academy. And he did so using shadow clones too." I paused for a few moments, "He also now knows about Rama and that he is the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki, but he seemed to take it pretty well. I have a feeling though that he's still struggling through his newfound knowledge, and I hope that I can persuade Kurama to help him through it."

I smiled faintly, "And he now knows who exactly I am in relation to him. I'm not exactly sure if anything will change because of my decision… but at least I'm now old enough to actually claim Naruto as my family." I ran my index finger over my father's face. "I still cannot tell him about his true heritage though, otousan, you still have too many enemies out there, enemies who haven't forgotten about you."

I held the picture close to my chest as I closed my eyes, allowing myself to go back to the pleasant times when I had both of my parents to look after me.

"_One day I'll be just as strong as you!" My childish voice spoke up as I leapt up into my father's open arms. "And then I'll be able to protect you, okaasan, and this entire village!"_

_My father smiled brightly at me as he held me up high, "I cannot wait to see the day that you do, my Nari-chan."_

_I giggled, "But you can do all of the boring paperwork as Hokage, I just want to be a normal shinobi."_

_He chuckled, "I'll keep that in mind." He set me down on the ground, ruffling my messy blonde hair as he did so. "Now go find your mother, she wanted to teach you something new."_

_My eyes widened, "Okay!" I raced away, his gentle laughter following me._

I opened my eyes to the real world once more, smiling faintly at the memory. "I'm almost there, otousan…" I murmured to myself as I set the picture frame on the bedside table, and changed out of my clothes. I crawled under my blankets and closed my eyes, "Just a few more years…"

* * *

**Alright, so it isn't as long as the last couple of chapters, or as well written, but it's just a transition chapter, so I hope it's alright.**

**Also, I _really_ didn't want to write out the entire Mizuki/Iruka/Naruto conflict since what I wrote out was really all that you need to know, and if you're reading Naruto fanfic I would sort of expect you to know what happens in the very beginning of the series…**

**Next chapter will have Nariko's surprise, her resignation from anbu, and will start to focus more on Naruto for a while as he meets his new team. **

**So enjoy this one for now and please review, I live off of them!**


	11. Chapter 10

**Alright, next chapter for you guys…**

**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto, but I wish I did every now and then, ^^;**

* * *

**Nariko's POV, early morning after Mizuki situation**

"Morning Naru-chan," I said as my brother failed to tackle me again, this time trying to catch me with a shadow clone. "Sleep well?"

He pouted at me for a few moments before nodding, "Sure did, Nariko-neechan!" He said, my name rolling off his tongue as if made to do so.

I grinned happily, this, this was what should have happened years ago, but… I had been too scared of what would have happened, and what he might have done if he had known. I knew now that I shouldn't have worried, he had proven to me that he could handle nearly anything thrown at him.

Just as I was dishing up Naruto's breakfast, Sasuke decided to show his face, and promptly froze in the doorway, staring at my face in confusion. "Ki-kitsune-neechan?" He stuttered somewhat, the look on his face completely adorable.

I grinned at him and pointed my pan at the spot next to Naruto. "Sit, Sasuke-chan and I'll explain," I stated before I walked over and filled Sasuke's plate with food. Itachi decided to join us around that time, but he just took the pan from me and dished up his own plate, and then mine.

"Well, today I'm handing in my resignation to anbu," I told them while they all ate. "But, I also will be applying for custody over Naruto since he is my brother. So you guys won't be losing me that easily."

Sasuke stared at me, Naruto smiled widely, and Itachi's mouth twitched in amusement.

"So… you're an Uzumaki?" Sasuke asked; his eyes curious.

I shook my head, "That's not actually our name, but… yes, technically I'm an Uzumaki."

Naruto looked at me in confusion, but I mouthed 'later' at him and he nodded with a huff.

"Anyways, you boys need to get ready to meet your teams," My left eye twitched slightly at the word, "and then Itachi and I will see you to the academy, but we won't be picking either of you up tonight since you're officially ninja as of today."

"…Didn't Naruto fail?" Sasuke piped up, finally noticing the hitai-ate on Naruto's forehead.

Naruto grinned crookedly at Sasuke, something that reminded me so much of our mother. "I'm a ninja now too Sasuke, dattebayo!"

I stared at Naruto before I broke down in a laughing fit causing everyone to stare at me in shock. There were literally tears coming out of my eyes at how hard I was laughing. "What? What did I say?" Naruto asked in confusion.

'_He's just like you, okaasan,'_ I thought happily to myself as I continued to laugh. _'He looks like otousan, but he's just like you.'_

I didn't grace him with an answer, simply waved a hand at him as I finally managed to gain control over myself. I shook my head as I continued to chuckle at myself while the two boys finally decided to go finish getting ready for the day.

Ignoring Itachi's looks he was sending me I quickly devoured my food before grabbing my mask. He gave me a confused look before I rolled my eyes, "Technically I'm still an anbu, and unlike you, no one knows who I am yet," I told him as I got to my feet, my coat flaring out behind me.

A few minutes later found us all out the door, Naruto and I 'racing' each other again while Itachi and Sasuke arrived a little after us. We left them with their friends before Itachi left me to run a few errands, mainly finding himself some pocky or dango, while I went to see the Hokage.

I at least sent Kagura over to gramps with a brief message before I barged in through the window, easily dodging Rat and Badger, catching their groans when they realized that it was just me, making themselves scarce as soon as possible.

Grinning, I took off my mask and chuckled lightly at the glare Sarutobi-jiji was sending me. "What is it this time, Nariko?" He asked me with a sigh.

I pouted, "What, not happy to see me?" He glared at me again and I sighed, "Well, I thought since you had a clone to help you with the paperwork now you probably were running low… so… here you go!" I grinned cheerily as I handed in the paperwork for my anbu resignation, the paperwork requesting complete custody over Naruto, and the paperwork to become a jounin for Konoha.

Sarutobi glared at me, but looked increasingly interested as he looked over the paperwork I had just given him. "You do know that the council will have a cow over this request Nariko," He said; holding up my request for custody over Naruto.

I shrugged my shoulders, "Just like they had a cow over him being kept alive, him being guarded by anbu, him being watched over by an eleven-year-old girl, even if she was anbu, and his living in the Namikaze estate," I rolled my eyes, "I've grown immune to their 'cow' infestation at this point," I told him.

"You say that you will go simply by Nariko on this form, reasons?"

I smiled crookedly, "I would have put Namikaze down but I think I'll wait until Naruto is a little older and stronger. And I will not take another surname anymore since those people are gone." My eyes turned serious, "I'm through pretending to be someone I'm not."

Sarutobi-jiji looked almost grateful at those words, but the look passed so swiftly that I was unsure if I had simply imagined it. "Since you skipped jounin and went straight to anbu you will be given a trial mission alongside another jounin who will report back to me with your status."

I sighed, "If I must…" He and I both knew that I was more than capable for jounin rank; I had survived nine years of anbu, hadn't I?

* * *

Later that day saw me dragging Itachi over to the Namikaze training grounds to show him my surprise. I grinned foxily as I handed him a metal pendant with the Uchiha clan symbol on the front and an intricate sealing array on the back.

"What's this for?" He asked me as his eyes traveled over the array.

I held up a hand before I trotted across the clearing. "Bite your finger and touch the blood to the back of the pendant!" I called out to him as I stopped running and faced him.

He gave me a look but did as I asked, putting his thumb against the pendant as I had asked him to do.

As soon as he had I felt a slight pull and submitted to it, grinning as I suddenly stood right next to Itachi, laughing at his shock.

"H-hiraishin?" He asked; his eyes wide.

I shook my head with a sigh, "No, it's a simple summoning seal, except that instead of summoning an animal or an object, it summons me." I sighed again, "I'm still trying to get the Hiraishin down, but my dad used something completely original to him, and none of the seals he used exist anymore."

Itachi looked at the pendant with interest again. "So this allows someone to summon you, without use of their chakra? I didn't feel a decrease in my strength when I activated your seal."

I grinned again, "I've already filled the seals chock full of chakra which will allow for them to work multiple times without needing to draw chakra from anywhere else. But, in the case that the seals run low on chakra, they will draw from the summoner, so be careful, I haven't gotten around that yet."

"You've made more of these?" He asked me as he wiped the blood off of the seal.

I nodded, "One for you, one for Jiraiya, one for each of the boys, one for Kakashi-nii, and one for Sarutobi-jiji, I just haven't given them all out yet." I pulled the other pendants out of my pocket and showed them off, "And an enemy shouldn't get suspicious of them since they don't look like seals, but like clan symbols."

Itachi nodded, "Very smart, anyways, how far are you on figuring out the Hiraishin?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "So far I'm able to reverse-summon myself, but it's a much different experience compared to this basic summoning. For one, the pull is much stronger than the summoning and so I still have a hard time with the 'landing' and it also happens faster than the summoning, meaning that my instinctual reaction time still isn't good enough." I sighed sadly, "So every time I have one of my clones attempt with another clone waiting, they aren't able to dodge the attack." I saw him look warily at the seal in his hand, "Don't worry thought, we've already tested out these summoning seals so that they will work fine, but if I get summoned halfway across the continent I have to summon a clone before the summoning sets in so that they can summon me back to where I was at the beginning…"

"And how does your clone know when to summon you back?" He asked.

"That's easy to explain, I simply create another clone and then dispel it immediately to signal my clone to summon me back."

"Interesting way to do things, but effective," He said as he pulled the pendant over his head, hiding it under his shirt as he did so.

I only gave him a grin in response.

* * *

**Nariko's POV, six years old…**

**Flashback no jutsu, begin!**

"Tousan? How does your Hiraishin work?" I asked my father innocently, a small smile on my lips.

He turned to me with an intrigued look on his face, "Why? Not thinking of trying it out are you?"

"Well not right _now_ but maybe sometime in the future…" I said truthfully, hoping that he would answer my question.

His blue eyes laughed, "Not the near future I hope, it's a dangerous jutsu and it took a lot of practice for me to get to my proficiency with it, but…" He held up a finger, "I will tell you that it is similar to a summoning jutsu, except that you must 'summon' yourself. It uses space and time to travel instantaneously to another place, understand?"

I nodded slowly, "I think I do, but if it's an instantaneous change in position couldn't that be detrimental to your position? I mean, if you appear in the wrong place couldn't some one easily take you down?"

He grinned at me, "I won't give you any more information since I don't want my little genius to figure it out right now. One day I'll teach it to you, but we'll wait a few years for that."

* * *

**Nariko's POV, few days prior to academy graduation**

"Come on, why won't this work?" I snarled as I watched yet another clone be defeated by another clone immediately after summoning herself to the seal. I turned back to my seal and changed a few things around, before sending a clone to try again.

The seal was still a summoning seal, but it had to be slightly different since I had to be able to summon myself to the seal without any assistance. Tousan had said something about the Hiraishin using space and time to travel instantaneously to a marked spot… but he had never clarified those words before his death.

I sighed as I turned back to the seal in front of me. How was it that my father had been able to summon himself to the seal, and successfully block an enemy's attack at the same time? He must have been able to 'see' where he was summoning himself to when he did so, but how?

Growling I turned back to my seal and changed it around again, I would eventually figure it out, but I wasn't exactly very patient…

**Flashback no jutsu, kai!**

* * *

**Nariko's POV, present…**

"I think I'm getting there slowly, but it still isn't battle-ready," I told Sarutobi-jiji as he asked me how my progress with the Hiraishin was going as well. I had just given him his pendant and explained to him how it worked; giving him an explanation as well to show it off.

Okay, I had sent the pendant along with Kagura to him while I sat on top of the Hokage monument and had him follow her instructions which summoned me to right beside his desk and caused Rat and Badger to groan at my entrance once more before they shook their heads and disappeared out of sight.

He had been shocked, but had quickly gotten a hold of himself and asked me exactly how it had worked and I mentioned as well that I was working on the Hiraishin.

He nodded at me now, "I'm sure you will figure it out soon, Nariko," He told me. "If there's anyone in this world who could reenact your father's jutsu, it would be you."

I grinned at his words, "I'm glad you think so, jiji. Anyhow, don't you dare lose that pendant, and don't use it to summon me randomly to your office either; I didn't fill it with chakra so that you can randomly summon me at your every whim."

He waved a hand at me, "Yes Nariko, I figured as much when you gave it to me, now go, I'm sure you have other things to do."

I nodded before exiting through the window in a yellow, black, and red blur.

* * *

**Naruto's POV, at the academy**

"Didn't you fail, Naruto?" Shikamaru asked me with a bored look on his face as I met up with him and the other guys.

"Don't you see this?" I asked him as I touched my hitai-ate, "This means that I passed, dattebayo!"

"Troublesome," He told me before he walked into the classroom, immediately going to his normal seat and closing his eyes as he promptly fell asleep.

I followed him into the room but took my normal seat next to Sasuke instead. That was when the rumbling in the hallway started. I plugged my ears and my mouth twitched as Sasuke did the same next to me.

"I'M FIRST!" The two girls shouted out as they entered the room at the same time, their voices barely muffled by my hands. And then they both decided to come over to Sasuke and I; attempting to push my out of my seat so that they could sit next to Sasuke.

"I'm not moving," I growled, suddenly glad that Nariko-neechan had started me out on the gravity seals a while back since neither girl could move me very much. She had also taught me how to deactivate and activate the ones she placed on me, even though I was still learning how to make them.

I had never been so glad to see Iruka-sensei in my life when he suddenly came in and shouted at the class. Sakura ended up sitting next to me while Ino sat in a different row, both girls glaring at me.

"Alright class, you are now officially graduates of this academy, I will now read off your teams." Iruka-sensei called out loudly with a small tick-mark on his forehead. He read off quite a few names, but I zoned out for a while, simply waiting for my name to be called.

"Team seven will consist of Uzumaki Naruto," I started to listen then, hoping that Sasuke would be on my team. "Haruno Sakura," I bit back a groan while Sasuke chuckled lightly beside me, "And Uchiha Sasuke." Sakura squealed, Sasuke bit back a groan, and I grinned. Even if Sakura was a fangirl, I was ecstatic; this was going to be awesome. I turned to grin at Sasuke, pleased to retrieve a small smirk from him in return.

"Team eight will be Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, and Hyuuga Hinata," Iruka said, the tick mark on his forehead growing slightly. The three called simply nodded, although I thought that Hinata looked really nervous.

"Since team nine is still active, team ten will be Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanaka Ino." The three called obviously all knew each other, although Shikamaru muttered 'troublesome' and Ino didn't look very happy. "Now that all of you have your teams you will wait here for your new sensei to pick you up, enjoy!"

Iruka-sensei vanished at those words and a few different adults arrived to pick up their new genin teams. I didn't recognize any of the jounin but I didn't worry about it, I just sat and talked with Sasuke for a while until everyone except for our team had been picked up.

Two hours later and our sensei still had not arrived. I growled at that but pushed down the desire to complain about it, rather deciding to set up a small trap for our sensei with the door and an eraser. I wasn't going to do anything extravagant until later, I had a few planned out already.

That was when I turned to Sakura and started up a conversation with her, "So Sakura, since we're all teammates now, why don't we figure out some things about each other?" I asked her, seeing Sasuke nod after a few moments.

The pink haired genin looked at me suspiciously, "Like what?" She asked me.

I shrugged, "Um… I don't know, just ask each other questions and answer the ones we want?"

She thought about it for a few moments before shrugging. "Alright, so… how do you know Sasuke so well?" She asked me.

I kept myself from rolling my eyes; I should have known that she would ask a question involving Sasuke. "Well, my older sister knew his older brother personally and they started training us together." I decided to say nothing about Sasuke living with neechan and I since he could say that if he wanted to. "Alright, so what are you goals as a ninja?" I asked her, hoping for something not creepy.

After a few moments of thought she responded, "Well, I want to be a great medical nin like Tsunade," She said looking slightly sheepish.

"I believe that is a good goal to have," Sasuke decided to speak up reluctantly, "Having a medical nin on a squad is very useful if another member gets injured."

Sakura smiled at Sasuke's words and visibly brightened, but she didn't go crazy over him, showing me that she did have _some_ maturity as a ninja. "What about you two? What are your goals?"

Sasuke shrugged, "I haven't really thought about it," he answered.

"I'm going to be the next Hokage, dattebayo!" I announced with a bright grin.

Sakura gave me a weird look, "I'll believe that when I see it," She said to me, but she didn't completely shoot me down so it was alright.

That was when our sensei decided to finally show up, the chalkboard eraser erupting in his gravity-defying silver hair. "You're late!" Sakura and I cried out at the same time, causing me to chuckle at her sheepish look afterwards.

"My first impression of you three… is that I hate you." The silver-haired masked man announced, causing all three of us to sweatdrop. "Meet me on the roof." He disappeared in a swirl of leaves, leaving us to follow.

* * *

We all arrived on the roof together, going over to where our teacher was now sitting. "So… why don't you introduce yourselves," He said lazily, reminding me of Shikamaru.

"What do you want us to say?" Sakura asked.

"What you like, hate, your dreams, hobbies, something like that."

"Why don't you introduce yourself first?" I asked when he was done talking.

He looked at me for a few moments. "Well, I'm Hatake Kakashi, I don't think I'm going to tell you my likes and dislike, as for my dreams… never really thought about it, and I have many hobbies."

'_He didn't tell us anything except for his name!'_ I growled inwardly.

"Your turn," Kakashi-sensei said as he looked at me.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto," I started off, a broad smile on my lips, "I like ramen, neechan's cooking, training with neechan, Sasuke, and Itachi, running fast, and neechan's summons. I don't dislike very much, I like to train, talk with neechan, and learn new jutsu, and I'm gonna be the great Hokage Konoha has ever seen, dattebayo!" I finished with a nod.

Kakashi-sensei seemed to accept that, but he gave me a weird look when I said 'neechan'. "Your turn then," He said as he turned to Sakura.

"Well, I'm Haruno Sakura and I like…" She giggled weirdly and I sweatdropped, "I also like learning new things, and my dream is to become a great medical nin!" She said nothing about her hobbies or dislikes, but I wasn't too sure I wanted to know them anyways…

"Last," Kakashi said with a sigh.

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke and I like training, talking with my brother, and tomatoes, I dislike sweets, and I don't have any real dreams yet."

"Alright… Well tomorrow we're going to do some survival training…"

"But we had plenty of training at the academy," Sakura spoke up.

Kakashi-sensei started to chuckle evilly, "Oh you guys will love this," He muttered to himself before raising his voice so that we could hear him easier, "You see, out of 27 graduates, only nine with become genin, the other 18 will be sent back to the academy. In other words, think of tomorrow's 'training' as a really hard test with a 66% dropout rate."

"What?" I asked after a while, "What was the point of the final exam at the academy then if we have to go through another test right after we graduate!"

"That? That test's only purpose is to weed out the hopeless candidates. So tomorrow I will either pass or fail you. Meet me at training ground 7 at 5am tomorrow with your ninja gear for survival training, oh, and don't eat breakfast tomorrow if you don't want to throw up." Kakashi-sensei said as he got to his feet, preparing to leave.

* * *

**Nariko's POV, at Namikaze estate**

"So how was your day you two?" I asked as Sasuke and Naruto came in, later than normal, but earlier than I had allotted seeing as Kakashi was their sensei.

"Hn," Sasuke responded to me before he gathered his gear and went out back.

Naruto sighed, "Well, we're on a team together, and Sakura is on our team as well. We have this really lazy and late sensei named Kakashi, but he fell for a lame eraser trick earlier today… And then he threw on us that we have to take another test tomorrow! He even told us not to eat breakfast…"

I grinned, "Well, Naru-chan, I hope you have fun then." I wasn't about to spill any of Kakashi's secrets to my brother or Sasuke unless they asked specifically about him, which I doubted they would since they didn't know who I knew.

"Do you think we should skip breakfast tomorrow morning?" He asked me sincerely, "If we're hungry during survival training we won't have as much energy, but I don't want to throw up…"

I gave him a look, "Well, why don't you compromise?" I reached into the pouch on my leg and pulled out a few food pills, "Take these with you and give one to Sasuke and Sakura, they'll give you the energy you'll need but if it proves too tough for a full stomach, they won't do anything."

He looked at me with a triumphant look, "Thanks neechan!" He put the pack of food pills in his pouch before going out to join Sasuke in their accuracy training with Itachi.

I waited for a few moments before I decided to go track down Kakashi.

* * *

"Oi, Kashi-niisan!" I called out to the owner of the gravity-defying hair who was currently sitting on top of a building reading his Icha Icha Paradise books that Jiraiya-sensei wrote.

He looked down at me, only I was no longer there, but right beside him. "Beside you Kashi," I announced as I plucked his book from his hands.

The silver-haired jounin glared at me, "Give that back Nariko," He growled as he attempted to grab it back from me.

I simply danced out of his reach, "Not yet, besides you'll just start reading it in front of me and I don't appreciate not being listened to."

He sighed, "What do you want?"

A grin lined my face, "Well I hear that you're my _brother's_ new jounin-sensei, although Sasuke lives with me as well if you haven't figured that out yet."

His black eye widened, "So he's…"

I nodded, "Yeah, he's truthfully Namikaze Naruto, truly surprised that you didn't guess that earlier since he looks so similar to my father."

"Does the council know at all?"

"Not a chance, not like I would tell them anyway," I reached towards my left arm to fix my hitai-ate that I used to cover my old anbu tattoo. "Besides, I only gave my first name in my jounin application and application for custody."

"You applied for custody over Naruto, officially?" He asked me, leaning up against the roof wall as he did so.

I nodded, "Yeah, the council will throw a fit, but then again they've done the same thing to several other things involving me, I've grown immune." Then I grinned at him, "By the way, what kind of test are you going to give your new team tomorrow? Promise I won't give anything away."

He narrowed his eye at me but then sighed, "I plan on using the bell test."

A small smile graced my lips, "Excellent choice, but I have a feeling that you might be surprised tomorrow." I chuckled at his bemused look. "Naruto might surprise you tomorrow if you allow him to." I tossed his book at him with a pendant and a note wrapped around it before I vanished.

* * *

**Kakashi's POV**

I grabbed the book out of the air, slightly confused when I noticed the pendant and note attached to it. I had been watching her the entire time, when had she…? I stopped and narrowed my eye, she had done it when she fixed her hitai-ate, it had to be.

I shook my head at her antics before I put my book away and held up the pendant. It was skillfully made with the kanji for 'Kakashi' inlaid into the front, and something that looked like a summoning seal on the back… I quickly opened the note.

'_Well Kashi, took you long enough to look at this, anyhow if you swipe your blood over the back of this pendant you will activate the seal which will summon me, no, it is not the Hiraishin, but I'm getting there… slowly. I've filled the seal with chakra so that it will not draw from you or myself but if it ever gets low it will draw chakra from you, the summoner, to compensate. I'm trying to find a way around that, but it'll take a while._

_-With love, your adopted sister, Nariko_

_P.S. Don't you dare use this seal to summon me asking for information on my sensei's books, for the last time I have _nothing_ to do with them._

_P.P.S. Also don't even think about using this to summon me to train your students for you, I have my own missions and jobs to do; now do yours!'_

I glared at the note but put the pendant around my neck anyways, tucking it underneath my shirt. My imouto definitely knew me too well.

* * *

**Nariko's POV**

I smiled as I watched Kakashi put the pendant around his neck with a faint smile causing a crease in his mask. And then I decided to go home, hoping that none of the boys had noticed my absence, I had dinner to make.

* * *

"Hey Nariko-neechan, I don't think I've ever told you this, but your cooking is amazing!" Naruto announced as he dug into his food with surprising gusto seeing as it wasn't ramen.

Sasuke nodded and I caught Itachi grinning over his food. I smiled truthfully, glad that they liked it. "Well thank you, it's something I enjoy doing." It was true that I normally made clones of myself to cook, but it wasn't because cooking wasn't something I didn't love to do, it was simply because I normally didn't have enough time in a day _to_ cook.

But it was days like today when I was given plenty of time to myself that I could pleasure myself with my hobby.

"So are you boys ready for tomorrow?" I asked them, knowing that Itachi had probably already heard everything from Naruto and Sasuke.

Sasuke nodded, "As ready as we could be, but I don't know how one would _prepare_ for survival training."

Naruto simply agreed with Sasuke, although I fought the smile that wanted to grace my lips. "Well that's good, do you think Sakura will be ready?" I asked the two of them, giving a slight wink to Itachi as Sasuke and Naruto shared a look with each other.

"I'm honestly not sure, she's really smart and everything, but she isn't very strong…" Naruto told me truthfully.

I nodded, "I guess you'll have to ask her that tomorrow then."

Both boys nodded, agreeing with me while Itachi simply looked curious, seeing something behind my words.

* * *

Later when the boys had gone to bed, I pulled out the shogi board and called Itachi over to join me. We set the board up swiftly and I started the game off, my eyes flickering over the pieces rapidly as I set up a strategy.

"What were you talking about earlier?" He asked me as he made his move, "You seem to know more than you were letting on."

I grinned as I took one of his pieces, "That's because I do know more than I let on, Kashi-niisan is going to give them the bell test which focuses on team work, but if they don't figure that out on their own or ask the right questions I won't say anything more."

Itachi stared at me for a moment, "You call him Kashi-niisan?" He shook his head before continuing with his move.

I nodded, easily making my move and taking another of his pieces, "Yeah, when I was younger he came around pretty often when I was home, and we grew pretty close. My parents had both grown really close to him as well and so I eventually began to think of him as a brother. So I call him Kashi-niisan, he argued with the nickname for a while, but eventually gave up on me calling him anything else."

"I see," He responded, taking one of my better pieces.

* * *

The next morning I woke up early and made my way to the memorial stone where I found Kakashi. "Morning Kashi-niisan," I said softly as I handed him a plate of food before stepping up to the memorial stone on my own. I ran my hand my parents' names and remained silent in prayer for a few moments before I stepped back, bowed, and turned back to my adopted niisan.

"Thanks for breakfast," He told me as he handed back the empty plate which I immediately sealed in a scroll at my waist to take home.

"No problem," I responded, "So how late are you planning on arriving to the training field?" I asked him curiously.

He shrugged, "I was thinking about getting there around eleven and giving them until twelve to get the bells."

I chuckled, "That will be interesting, good luck with them."

"Do you truly think I'll need it?" He asked me, his one eye glinting with curiosity, he wanted me to spill information.

I grinned foxily, "You know the rules Kashi-nii, but while they might not be able to defeat you in a straight out battle, I believe they could definitely give you a run for your money."

"Hm," He said as he nodded at me, "Oh, by the way the Hokage wanted to see you about a new assignment, told me to tell you if I saw you, I'm starting to think he's a mind reader, that or you're too predictable."

I glared at him, "You know that's not true, you're the predictable one if anything, but I'm not about to let you go take on a team of genin without having breakfast first."

He eye smiled at me, "And to that I am grateful."

"You'd better be, see you around Kashi-nii!" I said before I sped away to Jiji's office.

* * *

As always I entered through the window, although this time I wasn't jumped by Jiji's guards which made me a little sad. "You know, even if you get dodged every time I come in you really shouldn't stop attacking me when I come through the window, I mean, what happens if an enemy comes through there?" I asked Rat and Badger as they remained by Jiji's side.

They said nothing, but Jiji chuckled lightly for a moment before he held up a folder. "This is your new mission, I expect you to leave by the end of the day; you should be gone for around a week. Jiraiya will meet you outside of the gates since he will be the one reporting on your completion."

I nodded as I took the folder, taking a quick peek at the contents. "Solo infiltration mission? _And_ Jiraiya-sensei's the one tailing me? This is going to be fun." I grinned mischievously not missing the slight shudder Rat gave at my look.

"Behave, Nariko," Jiji reprimanded me, "this mission is vital to Konoha, don't screw it up."

I bowed lightly, "I always behave on missions," I responded before I nodded to both Rat and Badger and left through the window, not missing all three of their sighs at my exit.

* * *

**Naruto's POV, bell test**

"Kakashi-sensei's late," I growled as I sat on the tree branch with Sasuke a branch above me and Sakura sitting against the trunk on the ground. "Anyway, Nariko-neechan gave me these to give to you, she said that they'd give us energy without filling our stomachs," I pulled out the food pills and tossed one to Sasuke and another to Sakura before I popped one in my mouth and chewed.

"So Naruto, could you tell me a bit about your sister? You've spoken of her quite a bit, but I don't think I've ever seen her around." Sakura spoke up after she ate her food pill.

I grinned, "Well she's seven years older than me but if you ever saw an anbu hanging around me; that was her. She knew our parents but won't tell me anything about them, she's really strong, and she got into anbu at the age of ten. She's a _really_ good cook and she knows lots of different things." I paused, trying to think of anything else I wanted to say, "Oh, and she _totally_ likes Sasuke's brother."

Sasuke chuckled at my comment, "That's because they're a couple, Naruto, have been for a while."

I shrugged, "Yeah, but that doesn't nullify my comment."

"So what about your brother, Sasuke, what's he like?" Sakura asked again, and I suddenly wasn't sure what to think about her. She wasn't fangirling all over Sasuke or yelling constantly at me, and she was asking intelligent questions about her new teammates.

"My brother is a genius, he graduated from the academy at seven and joined anbu at nine, and he's very good at genjutsu and also loves dango and pocky." Sasuke responded, sending me a look as he did so.

I caught the look and rolled my eyes, "So Sakura, what about your family?"

She shook her head, "There's nothing really special about my family, I'm an only child in a civilian family of doctors and I decided that I wanted to become a ninja. They didn't want me to do so, naturally, but they allowed me to go to the academy in the hopes that I wouldn't make it far." She sighed, "But I've made it this far and hope to go further, I can't become a great med nin like Tsunade from within the academy."

I nodded and thought for a few moments, something that would have made neechan proud. "So, Sakura? What are your strong points as a ninja right now?"

She frowned as she stared at the ground in front of her, "Well I can do the academy jutsu no problem, I have pretty good chakra control, and Iruka-sensei told me that I was really good with genjutsu, but I don't know any good ones…"

Sasuke swung his legs over his branch and dropped down to join me on mine, "What are you thinking about, Naruto?" He asked me, curiosity in his eyes.

I shrugged, "We're all on the same team now, aren't we? That means we should try and learn as much about each other as we can, isn't that what Nariko-neechan is always talking about?"

He stared at me for a few moments before nodding, "Yeah, she does do that a lot."

Sakura turned to look back up at us, having overheard our conversation, "So um… what about your strengths?"

I smiled, "Well I'm pretty good with taijutsu and I know a few different jutsu that Nariko-neechan says I'm proficient with. I suck at genjutsu though…" I said nothing about fuuinjutsu since neechan had told me not to use any in my battles until she had taught me more.

Sasuke nodded at my words, agreeing with me for once. "I'm better at ninjutsu than I am at taijutsu, and Itachi-niisan has taught me a few basic genjutsu, but I'm still getting the hang of them since my chakra control isn't the best."

Our pink-haired teammate looked between us for a few moments, but Kakashi-sensei appeared before she was able to say anything.

"Yo," He said with a weird eye smile, from his one visible eye.

"You're late!" Sakura and I shouted as I leapt down from my branch.

Kakashi-sensei shrugged, "I got lost on the road of life."

My left eye twitched and I noticed Kakashi-sensei give me an odd look as I did so, did I remind him of someone? "Bullshit," I coughed under my breath, gaining a smirk from the Uchiha standing next to me.

Kakashi-sensei glared faintly at me before turning to address all of us, "Now you will have until noon to get one of these two bells from me." He held up two small, silver bells, and shook them once. "If you manage to get one of these bells from me before time runs out you will officially be a genin, but if you do not manage to get one of these bells, you will be sent back to the academy."

Sakura's eyes widened at that, "But there are three of us and only two bells!"

Our sensei chuckled, "I guess at least one of you will be returning to the academy anyways."

Sasuke shared a small look with me, but my eyes flickered over to Sakura and then back to him, his eyes narrowed.

"And one other thing, you will not be able to get these bells from me unless you come at me with the intent to kill."

"But what if you get hurt?" Sakura spoke up.

"Don't you worry about that," Kakashi-sensei told us, eye smiling once more. "Now… begin!"

All three of us jumped away from him swiftly, but I managed to follow Sasuke, a plan forming in my mind… I cringed, Nariko-neechan would probably not approve of what it though…

* * *

"Hey, Sasuke," I whispered as both of us watched Kakashi-sensei simply stand in the center of the clearing. "I have a plan, but… you might not like it…" I told him my idea of working together with Sakura to take the bells. "If I distract Kakashi-sensei with my shadow clones and taijutsu, you can come in with your fireball jutsu and lure sensei into a trap where Sakura can grab both of the bells."

He looked at me incredulously, "_Both_ of the bells? Are you crazy?"

I grinned widely, although I knew it was slightly fake, "I can get by with another run in the academy if neechan still continues to help me train, but Sakura desperately needs more training, and I have a feeling that Kakashi-sensei can help you out even more as well."

He stared at me, some sort of unknown emotion flickering through his eyes, "O-okay, Naruto, go distract him, I'll fill Sakura in on your plan…"

I smiled, tapping him on the shoulder before I launched myself out of the trees and faced Kakashi-sensei who had been about to leave the clearing.

"Come on sensei, fight me one-on-one!" I called out as I readied myself into my taijutsu stance. I deactivated my gravity seals, feeling slightly lighter as I did so. I wouldn't be anywhere near as fast as Nariko-neechan, but the extra burst of speed would be helpful.

Kakashi-sensei chuckled before he reached into his kunai pouch… and pulled out an orange book?

"H-hey! I said fight me!"

He waved a hand at me, "Go right ahead, I just didn't want to miss out on what happens next in this story."

I snarled at him before I kicked off the ground, propelling myself to his side, pleased when his eye widened faintly at my speed. I attempted to plan out my moves spontaneously in order to put him in position for Sasuke and Sakura.

He didn't even stop reading his story though, infuriating me even more, making it harder for me to plot out my next moves, making my attacks more wild as time wore on.

After a while I leapt back with a grin on my face, pleased at the faintly confused look on sensei's face, "Now Sasuke!" I yelled out, dodging to the right as a giant fireball rocketed towards Kakashi. Kakashi dodged towards the left, and didn't notice the small genjutsu that Sasuke had cast earlier to hide Sakura from view.

The jingle of bells beside Kakashi-sensei broke the genjutsu and saw a smiling Sakura holding the two bells in her hands, and an amused Kakashi.

"So Sakura, you managed to get the bells from me, what shall you do with them?" Kakashi-sensei asked curiously as he finally put his weird orange book back into his pocket.

Sakura looked at both Sasuke and I who had walked closer after the genjutsu had disappeared. Her eyes flickered between the two of us before she walked over to us and handed both of us the bells, shocking me and Kakashi.

"Sa-sakura," I stuttered faintly before I shook my head and pushed the bell back into her hand. "No, you keep this; I can survive another year in the academy." I smiled, but my heart wasn't fully in it.

My pink haired teammate looked down at the bell in her hand before her eyes widened and a faint smile appeared on her lips. She flashed her hands into a simple sign and my eyes widened as another bell appeared in her hands. "What are you talking about? I managed to get _three_ bells, not two."

I grinned happily and held up my bell alongside Sakura and Sasuke as we all turned to Kakashi-sensei.

The gray-haired jounin stared at all of us seriously, "YOU ALL…" He growled, causing all three of us to flinch, "Pass!" I glanced at him again to find his eye smile gracing his features again.

"W-what?" I asked, stuttering faintly.

"Those who do not follow the rules are trash, but those who would leave a teammate behind are worse than trash." He told us in response. "You all worked as a team to get the bells, even though Naruto and Sasuke did most of the work. But when faced with a decision, Sakura, you managed to improvise. From this day onwards, you three and myself are a team, be here tomorrow at eight am for training." He shunshined away, leaving the three of us standing confused on our own.

"Well, that was weird…" Sasuke spoke up eventually, pulling Sakura and I out of our shock.

I nodded, before an idea crossed my mind, "Hey Sakura, do you want to join us for dinner tonight at my place?" I asked, ignoring Sasuke's look as I did so.

She looked at me with a small smile on her face, "S-sure, I would be happy to."

I nudged Sasuke as I walked past him, making my way back to the estate with both of them following me.

* * *

**Nariko's POV**

I blinked as I opened the door to Kakashi and Jiraiya, both entering the house before I could invite them in. I growled faintly as I shut the door behind them, "Invite yourselves in why don't you…" I muttered under my breath as I turned to my two guests. "I was prepping for a mission."

Jiraiya waved a hand at me as he sat down in one of the chairs. "Yeah yeah, I've already told Kakashi about what you did."

I rolled my eyes at my sensei before I turned to my adopted brother, "By the way Kashi-nii, how did your team do?" One of my hands was on my hip, one fine eyebrow raised.

He rolled his eye at me, "I passed them." His words caused me to grin brightly. "Your brother talked Sasuke into some sort of plan, and used Sasuke to talk Sakura into the plan as well. They ended up working together, although Naruto wouldn't allow Sakura to give him a bell." He eye smiled at me, "Which caused her to clone the bell that she had, allowing all three of them to have one."

I chuckled at his words before I turned and tossed a pendant to Jiraiya-sensei. "In case Kashi-nii decided not to fill you in on what I've accomplished these past few years; that is a summoning seal, to summon me." I saw my sensei grin at that, "It isn't the Hiraishin, but I'm still working on the seal for that. This, however, is filled with chakra so that you can summon me at need, but will draw chakra from you if it runs out. Just smear a little of your blood onto the array on the back and I'll be pulled to wherever you are."

He nodded, glancing at the array on the back before turning it over to glance at the kanji on the front. It simply said 'Jiraiya' on it, but he seemed pleased. "Congratulations, gaki, you're getting there."

I smirked, "Of course I am sensei." I turned away from both of them as I continued to seal some necessities away into the scrolls I buckled onto my belt. I undid the bandages on my right arm in order to place a small seal on my wrist before doing the same on my left wrist. I quickly recovered my arms at the curious glance from my sensei and brother.

"Healing seals, key seals, storage seals, etc… how many seals do you keep on your body?" Jiraiya-sensei asked me curiously.

I shrugged, "Enough of them, I also created a seal to override all of the seals on my body in the case of my being kidnapped so that no one else could steal some of the more… personal ones."

"What did you just store on your wrists though, imouto?" Kakashi asked.

"My twin swords, I figured that it would be easier to unseal them from my wrists than it would be from anywhere else." I stepped away from both of them and touched the wrists of either arm with the opposite hand, pleased when my twin swords appeared crossed in front of me, both held delicately. "And it's simple to reseal them as well." A miniscule flare of my controlled chakra through the storage seals on my wrists and my swords were called back.

Kakashi nodded before turning towards the door which had just opened, admitting Itachi who had just gotten home from his shopping spree. A stick of pocky was hanging out of his mouth as he stared at our company. The stick of pocky disappeared swiftly as I barely restrained laughter.

"Welcome back, Itachi." I remarked to my boyfriend as I finished packing for my mission. "Join the party."

"I hope it's a good one…" He remarked blandly as he continued a staring contest with Kakashi.

I smacked Kakashi on the shoulder, "Just because you're my niisan doesn't mean you get rights to scaring my boyfriend." Itachi's mouth twitched faintly before the two of us felt a wave of killer intent coming off of Jiraiya. "You don't gain any of those rights either, sensei," I growled as I turned to glare at him, causing him to drop the killer intent and attempt to hide behind Kakashi. I rolled my eyes.

"Anyways, Itachi, I'm about to go on my first mission as a jounin, Jiraiya-sensei here will be tailing me and reporting back to Hokage-jiji with how I do." I told Itachi as I ignored the other two people in the room.

Itachi nodded, "You might want to wait a few minutes though since Naruto, Sasuke, and their teammate Sakura are about to join us."

I smiled, "Good, I needed to give the two boys their pendants anyways." I reached into the small pouch on my right leg and pulled out two metal pendants. One had the Uchiha insignia engraved in the front, while the other had the Namikaze insignia, the one that doubled as a protection seal.

Jiraiya grabbed Naruto's out of my hand and looked at it for a while, "You haven't told him what this design means though, have you?" He asked me as he handed it back to me.

I shook my head, "No, he doesn't know that it's the clan symbol for Namikaze, and I don't plan on telling him yet. Besides, it isn't as if he will question the symbol, all of my clothes are decked out in it." I held up my gloves as proof to that.

That was when the door opened and three different voices approached my ears. "You'll definitely like my neechan, and she isn't intimidating, you'll see!"

I eye twitched at Naruto's words, not intimidating? I glanced at Itachi, Kakashi, and Jiraiya who were all chuckling at those words, and I glared them into silence.

"Well, if you're sure she'll be alright with me joining you…" The feminine voice must belong to Haruno Sakura, hm, she didn't seem to be fangirling over Sasuke… was my information wrong?

"Don't worry too much, Sakura," Sasuke finally spoke up as the three of them entered the main room where Itachi, Jiraiya, Kakashi, and I all stood.

"Kakashi-sensei? What are you doing here?" Naruto spoke up, confused.

I grinned, "Kashi-nii here was just coming to tell me of your success and congratulate me on my move to jounin." I saw Kakashi roll his eyes and widened my mischievous grin at the three's shocked faces.

"He's your brother, _our_ brother?" Naruto spoke up, his eyes flickering back and forth in ultimate confusion.

I walked over to my otouto and ruffled his hair. "No, otouto, he's my adopted brother, he and I were very close when I was younger, and he was also very close to both of our parents who had practically adopted him as family."

Naruto nodded, curiosity riddling his face, but he thankfully didn't ask any more questions.

Nodding, I turned to Sakura and looked her over thoroughly, "So you must be Sakura, I'm Nariko, Naruto's sister."

She smiled faintly at me, "It's a pleasure to meet you Nariko-san."

I rolled my eyes, "Just Nariko please, san makes me sound too old." I turned away from her and turned to Itachi, "Come on Itachi, join in the conversation while I steal Jiraiya-sensei here to help me cook."

Itachi turned to look at Jiraiya with an interested look on his face, "You can cook?"

Chuckling I grabbed my sensei's arm and pulled him into the kitchen, "He can chop; I wouldn't trust him near a boiling pot."

As we walked away I heard Sakura stutter, "T-that's Jiraiya of the Sannin? One of Tsunade's teammates?"

I chuckled and allowed the others to explain to a very confused and overwhelmed Sakura while I pulled out ingredients for an early dinner. "You and I will finish making dinner before we eat quickly, I give the pendants to the boys, and we leave, kapeesh?"

My sensei rolled his eyes and nodded as he got to work cutting up the vegetables I had set out while I prepped my spices.

* * *

"Dinner is ready everyone!" I called into the other room as I quickly set up the dinner table, placing myself at the head of the table, Itachi on my left, and Naruto on my right. Jiraiya sat across from me next to Kakashi while Sakura sat in between Naruto and Sasuke.

After everyone had sat down and begun to eat I allowed myself to dig in as well, not completely used to eating at the same time as everyone else, having eaten later for a few years.

"Naruto, Sasuke," I said, catching the attention of the two boys. "After dinner I'll need the two of you to come outside with me, I have something to give you two before Jiraiya and I leave on a mission."

Naruto frowned lightly, "You're going on a mission? For how long?"

I chuckled and ruffled his hair, "It should be about a week, but Itachi or Kakashi will keep an eye on you for me, so don't worry, and besides, we have our way to communicate." I winked at him, ignoring the curious looks from Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi. I had already told Itachi about my connection with Naruto, and Jiraiya knew about it in the past when I had spoken to my mom.

He nodded, a small smile gracing his features once more as he turned to finish his food.

"This is very good, Nariko," Sakura spoke up as she stared down at her plate which was, surprisingly empty. She almost had a guilty look on her face as she stared at her empty plate.

I shook my head, "Don't feel guilty about eating, Sakura, as kunoichi we burn off most of what we eat through training and missions. But I'm glad that you like the food, it's a hobby of mine to cook."

She looked up at me in surprise at that before she smiled and nodded.

I grinned as I noticed that nearly everyone was done eating but Jiraiya and myself, although I expected that Kakashi would have been the first one done, having not allowed anyone else to see his face. I quickly finished eating my food and was happy when Sakura offered to help me clean up while all of the guys talked to each other outside.

"So how are you enjoying being a genin?" I asked Sakura as we washed up.

She smiled faintly, "It's a lot different than I had thought it would be…" Her voice was soft. "Two days ago I thought of Naruto as annoying and hopeless, but now I have no idea what to think, he's been so kind to me even though I've been to mean to him before."

I smiled, "Naruto seems to have that effect on a lot of people; you simply get used to it." I paused before continuing, "Do you have any dreams for your future?"

She nodded, "I want to be a med nin as good as Tsunade."

"That is a wonderful dream to have, and I'm sure that one day you will achieve that goal." I told her as we finished and made our way back to the guys, only to find that Naruto and Sasuke had decided to spar a little.

"Um, Nariko? Do you have any dreams of your own?" Sakura asked me as she watched the two boys attack each other with focused smiles on their faces.

I nodded, "I want to protect this entire village and everyone I care about, just like my parents did." The last part was said quieter, but I knew that she had heard me. I did not wait for her reply as I dropped my gravity seals and tapped the ground, flickering so that I was in between the two sparring boys, catching Naruto's leg on my arm and Sasuke's leg on mine.

"So fast…" I heard Sakura say as I released the two boys, smirking at both of them.

"Now boys, I told you that I had something to give you…" I pulled out the two pendants and tossed them to the two boys, grinning mischievously as they looked at the designs on the front and back.

"What are they for, neechan?" Naruto asked me as he stared at the sealing array on the back, faintly recognizing some of the components.

"Well why don't you find out?" I asked him as I leapt across the clearing, "Naruto, bite your thumb and smear the blood across the seal on the back."

He looked at me curiously but did as I asked and gaped when I appeared next to him, "It's a summoning seal, but instead of summoning Kyemi, for example, it summons me." I ruffled his hair. "There's enough chakra in both of those pendants to allow you to summon me a few times, but eventually it'll need more chakra pumped into them in order to continue to run. I trust that both of you will use these wisely and won't summon me unless you're in deep trouble."

They both nodded at me before they put on the pendants, causing me to smile. "Now both of you behave while I'm gone, and listen to your sensei, he knows what he's doing." I kissed both of their foreheads, leaving them embarrassed as I turned to say goodbye to the rest of the group.

"Take care of them for me, Kashi-nii, and don't be too lazy." He rolled his eyes at me. "And Itachi? Hold down the fort, the estate will need to be cleaned at least once before I get home, but leave my room alone, alright?" He nodded and kissed me lightly, causing me to smile.

I then turned to Sakura who now watched me with admiration, "Feel free to knock some sense into both Sasuke and Naruto if you fell they need it, both of them can sometimes be too proud for their own good." She smiled and nodded.

"Well then, come on sensei, we've got a mission to finish." I smiled at everyone before I zipped off, leaving a large gust of wind in my stead to give an idea to my speed.

"Damn it Nariko! Wait for me!" Jiraiya growled as he raced off after me, knowing that I would wait for him at the front gates.

* * *

**That's all for this chapter, but all of you should be happy since this is the longest chapter I have written to date… Don't expect all of the other chapters to be this long, but I'll continue to aim for around this length.**

**Until next time, please review! It's what I live on! ^^**


	12. Chapter 11

**Woot! Finally have some time to just sit down and write for a change! Expect a few chapters to come out on a quick basis between now and the 13th of August! After that I probably won't get as much done since I'll be going out of town, but that's all good, ^^;**

**Disclaimer; I don't own Naruto, but I do own Nariko**

* * *

**Nariko's POV**

"Damn it, Nariko, you just cannot help but show off to new people, can't you?" Jiraiya asked as he finally caught up to me at the village gates, not that I wasn't simply lazing on top of the gates waiting for his arrival.

"I wasn't showing off, I simply forgot to reactivate my gravity seals, you know how that is… oh wait, no you don't, because you don't _use_ gravity seals on yourself." I flipped to my feet and grinned at my sensei.

He growled at me, "Of course I don't! I don't feel the need to have my muscles constantly ripped to shreds as more and more weight is added to them."

I shrugged my shoulders as I leapt down from the top of the gate to the ground below, waving lazily at the two chuunin working the gates at the moment, they waved back. "I don't have that problem."

"That's because you're an Uzumaki by blood."

Another shrug, "Does it really matter? Dad used them to enhance his speed, and he wasn't an Uzumaki."

"Your mother took good care of him with all of her healing seals, he didn't need to be."

Which reminded me of something, "Speaking of seals, here's my new and improved healing seal, thought you might want to look it over." I handed him the seal and continued to walk as he looked it over component by component.

"It's very detailed, stronger than your previous ones, also works more than one time, very good." He nodded appreciatively and handed the design back to me, "I take it you've already altered your left arm to contain it?"

"Of course I have," I responded easily as I leapt from branch to branch at a lazy pace, in my eyes, to allow sensei to keep up with me.

* * *

**Naruto's POV**

"Do you think neechan will do alright on her mission?" I asked Itachi curiously as I watched Kakashi take Sakura home.

He chuckled, "Oh she'll be fine, I only worry for Jiraiya and any others that get in the way of her completing it."

I looked at him, "So Nariko-neechan's really that strong?"

Itachi thought about that for a few moments, "If she gets irritated enough or feels that someone she cares for is being threatened, absolutely, and then some." He looked at me sidelong, "You know that she acts similar to a mother when someone she cares about it threatened, especially if it's you."

"Me?" I asked, before I paused, remembering the one time I had run away from Nariko-neechan, just after she had become my guardian.

* * *

**Flashback no jutsu, begin**

I had run away from my guardian, just as I had run away from all of my other guardians prior. She was just some other anbu, another one sent to 'protect' me when really they didn't care for me at all. She seemed nice enough, but I didn't believe it, no one other than Hokage-jiji and Teuchi-san had ever really been nice to me. I mean, I suppose Inu and Weasel had been nice enough to me when they picked me up after getting beaten up by the villagers, but they didn't really count.

Lost in my thoughts I hadn't realized the villagers who had surrounded me, many of them carrying weapons of some sort. There even seemed to be some ninja in the crowd, something that scared me.

I cowered, my brain trying to find a way out of this mess, even though I knew it was hopeless; I had never been able to escape a beating before. I closed my eyes as the first villager came close to me, prepared to strike, but the attack never came. My eyes opened and I was shocked to see Kitsune-san standing in front of me, the villager's wrist held in hers.

"Leave now and you may return to your families unharmed." She said in a cold voice, a voice that hadn't been directed towards me, but to everyone else.

"And why the hell should we? That demon has to pay!" A few villagers ran at the two of us and I cowered backwards some more, only to watch with widened eyes as the young anbu guardian kicked at the air in an arc and sent a large burst of air flying at the attacking villagers.

"Do not make me repeat myself." She snarled with barely restrained fury, her body shaking with anger, her fists clenched at her sides. When the crowd did not disperse she flashed through a few hand signs, bit her thumb, and slammed her palm on the ground, two foxes appearing beside her. The taller of the two stood with his shoulder close to Kitsune-san's shoulder while the other was slightly smaller, her shoulder coming halfway between Kitsune-san's hip and shoulder. "Kyemi, Takai, take Naruto back to the estate, I'll be back in a few."

The two foxes nodded before they approached me, the smaller of the two crouching down. "Get on, Naruto," She said in a lilting voice. I paused for a moment before Kitsune-san looked at me.

"Neither of them will hurt you, Naruto, they will take you to safety while I deal with this problem."

I did as the fox had asked and held on tight when the ground suddenly disappeared beneath me, the vixen beneath me running swiftly across the building rooftops, the male right next to her.

I remember hearing a few screams as we left, and looked back for a quick peek as Kitsune-san practically ripped through the crowd, leaving the civilians with simple bruises while the ninja who kept going towards her faced the wrath of her other wind techniques.

**Flashback no jutsu, kai**

* * *

I smiled as I turned away from Itachi, the memory fresh in my mind.

I missed Itachi's smile as he looked at me before walking away to play a game of shogi with Sasuke.

"_**You're not alone anymore, kit,"**_A gravely voice spoke up from my mind.

I froze at the voice, immediately knowing that it belonged to the Kyuubi, wait, Kurama. Taking a look over at Sasuke and Itachi I decided to retire to my room and speak with him, if Nariko-neechan trusted him… I suppose I could attempt the same thing. I closed my eyes as I sat on my bed, pulling myself into my mind.

I flinched as I saw the large red fox sitting in the cage in front of me. _**"So you decided to visit me, finally."**_

Looking into the slitted red eyes I saw no hatred directed towards me, only a tired sort of caring. "Um, hi?" I said, not really knowing why I had decided to speak with him, or what I had thought to accomplish.

"_**You are an interesting one, kit; boisterous on the outside and yet so quiet within."**_ I looked up to see Kurama close his eyes, yet still appeared alert.

"K-Kurama? Nariko-neechan said that our mother was your last jinchuuriki, co-could you tell me anything about her?" I asked finally.

One eye opened once more, _**"I suppose I could, but it's a manner of would I like to, learn some proper grammar, kit."**_

My eyes widened, and then narrowed, "You're seriously going to yell at me about grammar? Really?"

The fox in front of me shrugged, _**"I appreciate proper grammar, and you should as well if you ever want someone to take what you say correctly."**_

I glared at him for a few moments before I sighed, "Would you please tell me about my mother? Nariko-neechan… she doesn't seem to like the topic."

"…_**That's because she had to watch both of them die, kit, right in front of her while she held you safe in her arms."**_ He watched me for a few moments before he continued, _**"Let's see… your mother was similar to you in personality, always boisterous and loud, she really loved ramen as well, crazy addicted to it, if you ask me. She had a temper like your sister's, although she didn't control it as well. She was also slightly perverted…"**_

"Mom was a pervert?!" I said in shock, my mind not wanting to think about how neechan had watched our parents die.

Kurama rolled his eyes faintly, _**"Not as bad as that Jiraiya, but she still read all of his books. It seems that your sensei might have taken after her in that factor, although a little more extreme." **_He huffed, _**"She was also an amazing cook, according to everyone who ate her food. Nariko learned from her and carried on the hobby. That's all that I will tell you about her, anything else you would like to ask?"**_

I took in all of the information, pleased that I had at least learned something about my mom. "Does neechan… really love me?"

The red fox chuckled at that, _**"That is a stupid question to ask, kit. She loves you more than anything else in this world, and that's saying something. To her, you are the embodiment of both of your parents, and her younger brother. She's very protective of you kit, almost like a mother fox when her kits are threatened."**_

I smiled, my doubts fluttering away, even though I hadn't even noticed that I'd had doubts. "Thank you Kurama."

A huff of air was my response, _**"At least you have manners."**_

"_What's that supposed to mean, Rama?"_ I blinked as I heard my sister's disembodied voice. _"And hey Naruto, how's it going?"_

Kurama growled, _**"You know exactly what I mean, kit, he at least calls me by my proper name instead of that blasted nickname you thought up years ago."**_

"_I couldn't help the fact that I couldn't fully pronounce Kurama at that age, and besides, Rama works just as well, you know you like it."_

I blinked again, "N-neechan? Aren't you on a mission?"

"…_Yeah, but Jiraiya's having a hard time talking and keeping up with me so I thought I'd talk to Rama, but I'm happy that I can talk to you at the same time as well."_

I smiled, "Maybe you should up your gravity seals again if it's so hard for him to keep up."

"_I did that already… but he's still struggling and it isn't like I can up my seals any more at the moment unless I want to do some major damage to my muscles."_

Kurama laughed at that, _**"He's an old man, Nariko, what did you expect?"**_

"_I expected him to have kept in shape after I left to join anbu…"_ There was a pause in her voice, _"Anyways, looks like I gotta go, something's happening around here, I'll need my full attention outside. I'll talk to you again soon, Naru-chan."_

"_**And you should probably get to sleep, it's getting late."**_ I felt a gentle shove and all of the sudden I was blinking at my room instead of the sewer-like cage where Kurama lay inside of me.

'_That was weird'_ I thought to myself, before I changed into my pyjamas and went to bed.

* * *

**Nariko's POV**

I stopped running immediately after breaking my connection with Kurama and Naruto, my senses completely alert and focused on what was around me. I heard and felt Jiraiya stop just behind me, the serious look on his face telling me that he was ready as well.

An odd scent came to my nose first before any sounds reached my ears. I ducked behind a tree, pulling my sensei with me as I sensed a few ninja passing a few meters away. Neither of us worried about them sensing our chakra since we had already hid our chakra signals as soon as we were an hour away from Konoha.

I sniffed briefly at the air, catching a whiff of the odd scent again, one that tugged faintly at my memory. I couldn't place the scent though so I decided to ignore my nose and focused on my hearing instead, closing my eyes in order to enhance my hearing slightly.

"…went through here, I tell you, the boss told us so." A masculine voice spoke up, younger in age, slightly higher pitched, teenager?

"Well then, where the hell are they? I can't see anything around here at all!" This voice was feminine, and gravely, seemingly belonged to a middle-aged woman to my ears.

"Shut up, the boss just told me that they're in the vicinity, hiding. The woman seems to have some highly enhanced sensory skills."

I barely held in a growl, they were looking for us? Turning to face my sensei I could see that he had at least heard some of the conversation. My eyes flashed faintly and I narrowed my eyes at him, seeing him shake his head at my movements.

I shook my head at him as I released my gravity seals, instantly feeling ten times lighter. He glared at me but only received a tight grin in response before I threw myself upwards, flashing up the tree silently.

Stealthily I managed to position myself directly above the small group, three ninja, two male, and one female. One of the males was young, approximately my age, and lean. He barely had any muscle on him, probably a genjutsu user, maybe even ninjutsu. My eyes flickered to the second male; he had a full set of muscles, definitely a taijutsu user. He barely carried any weapons on his body, something that added to my first idea. He also didn't seem very fast, given his body's bulk. The woman though, was probably around her lower thirties, and carried a long sword on her back and a tanto at her side. From the way she held herself, she definitely knew how to use them.

I narrowed my eyes at the group who had taken up a simple formation, all three of them with eyes searching. I silently pulled out one of my paralysis seals, I'd need to take out the genjutsu user immediately since genjutsu was one of my weakest points, and Jiraiya wasn't all that great at it either.

Counting to three within my mind I prepared myself for my attack, and shoved off the branch, landing directly in the middle of the three ninja, activating the paralysis seal on the teenager before I flickered away to another tree, showing myself plainly. "Looking for me?" I called to them, my arms crossed in front of me.

The two still able to move smirked, the female drawing her blades while the man got into a taijutsu stance. "You're fast, but it's three-on-one right now," The man said, obviously not as smart as the others.

"Really? I thought it was only two-on-one since your third member is currently incapacitated, and I wouldn't tamper with that seal if I were you, it tends to release a deadly poison when messed with." I tilted my head faintly, "So who wants to be first?"

The man was on me in an instant, making me rethink my idea of his speed. He was fast for someone so dense with muscles. But he wasn't fast enough. I ducked under his attacks and responded with chakra enhanced jabs, pushing myself away to keep my distance before the woman was on me.

My instincts had alerted me to her attack though, causing me to unseal my twin swords and meet her attack head-on. Her long sword was heavy, pushing me down, but I flipped my blade slightly while side-stepping, causing her sword to hit the branch below us while I attacked with my now-free left blade.

I scored a small cut on her arm before I leapt away again, not worrying about the taijutsu user since he was currently having a hard time breathing due to the two shattered ribs I had given him.

Returning my full attention to the woman, I grimaced. She was fast, strong, and a swords mistress. She knew exactly how to utilize the longer sword and the shorter tanto at the same time.

And while I knew exactly how to use my blades, she had the advantage of a longer reach with her sword, and the possibility to catch me off guard with her tanto's attacks.

I ducked under a swing from her long sword and made a split-second move, ducking inside of her long sword's reach in order to block her tanto with one of my blades before attempting to stab her. What I hadn't expected was the glow of chakra appearing on her tanto's edge before the blade extended past my blade to stab my shoulder. I still managed to stab her chest, but I had to duck under her long sword again as I attempted to release myself from her wind saber.

I snarled as I sealed one of my blades, in order to activate one of the healing seals on my body, the wound quickly resealed itself as if it had never happened. The woman then dropped to the ground, my wound having done enough damage to defeat her.

Jiraiya-sensei showed himself then, glancing at my shoulder with a tight-lipped expression on his face. He was the one who approached the genjutsu user, whom I had paralyzed, a user who apparently had had some sort of training in fuuinjutsu because he had stupidly attempted to tamper with my seal, resulting in his untimely demise.

I approached the taijutsu user as I resealed my second blade, noticing that my attack had ultimately killed him in the end. "Hm, so we're being followed by someone, not very pleasant," I growled as I turned back to my sensei who was now searching the woman's body.

"Any idea of who it is or why?" I asked him as I approached.

He nodded, holding up a familiar kunai. I hissed under my breath as I took the kunai from him, glaring at the dark gray metal edged with a purple blade. "The same people who attacked me, and then Konoha?" I didn't need to look up to see his nod, I cursed under my breath. "What the hell are they after?" I turned to glare at the dead team of ninja, "What I wouldn't have given for at least one of them to still be alive for us to interrogate."

"We shall have to report of this to the Hokage, but we need to continue this mission, Nariko, it's important."

I nodded, having been one step ahead of his words as I flashed my hands through a chain of signs, before biting my thumb and slamming it onto the ground, a small white vixen appearing in front of me. I quickly filled her in on what had happened as we continued forwards. "Can you take what I've told you to the Hokage, Kagura?" I asked her once I was finished reporting.

She nodded as she trotted alongside me. "I don't think that will be a problem, good luck with the rest of your mission, Nariko." She then wheeled around and sped off, a bright white blur against the slow darkness of the forest.

"Was it wise to summon her? She stands out like a sore thumb against this foliage." Jiraiya asked me as we continued.

I grinned, "I summoned her because like her mother, she controls air which used in small spurts can help her speed up. Despite that, Kagura is one of the fastest fox summons, she can even run faster than me on a good day."

My sensei sighed at that, "What is up with all of you Namikaze brats and speed?"

My grin widened, "It's fun."

* * *

Late into the night we finally made up our camp. I set it up while Jiraiya did up the barrier seals around us, one of them being my mother's creation which created an illusion to any outsiders, preventing them from seeing our camp. By the time he was done I had one tent set up for him while I laid my sleeping roll out on the bare ground. On missions I managed to remain alert even in sleep, both of us would be able to sleep through the night.

So we both retired to rest, knowing that the next morning could hold several different surprises for us.

* * *

**Naruto's POV**

I woke up early the next morning to the smell of something cooking. I smiled at the thought of my sister's cooking until I remembered that she had gone on a mission with the Ero-sennin and that we would be left alone with Itachi-nii and Kakashi-sensei. I still couldn't get over the fact that Nariko-neechan called him Kashi-nii, and that he let her do it.

I got out of bed, well rested for once, and quickly got dressed; I only had two hours before I needed to be at training ground 7 where our team would be meeting up at. Thinking briefly about how late Kakashi-sensei had shown up for survival training I decided to add a sealing scroll to my belt, the one with all of my studies sealed within it, just in case his lateness was something that happened a lot.

I then trotted down the hallway to the kitchen where I found Itachi cooking, Sasuke already sitting at the table. I stared at Itachi for a few moments before I sat down next to Sasuke, "Did you know he could cook?" I asked him quietly, my eyes not moving from the older Uchiha.

"Not really, but I've seen him in the kitchen with Ki… I mean Nariko, every once in a while." He responded; his eyes on his brother as well.

A sigh from near the stove caught our attention, "I can hear you," Itachi spoke up as he turned off the heat and brought the pan over to us, "And I taught myself how to cook during missions, Nariko eventually taught me more about it, being that cooking is a hobby of hers."

I stared at the food in front of me, wondering briefly if it would taste as good as Neechan's cooking. I picked up my chopsticks before tentatively taking the first bite, which then turned into my downing the entire plate.

Sasuke seemed to do the exact same thing, which apparently amused Itachi as he slowly ate his food.

"Have fun," He said as Sasuke and I got to our feet, taking our plates to the sink before we turned to leave.

I grinned, but didn't respond, this was my first day as an actual genin; it had darn well better be fun.

* * *

"This isn't fun!" I shouted to the heavens as I was clawed by the devil cat and laughed at by Kurama inside me. _"Shut up! You aren't helping this situation!"_ I growled inwardly as I forced myself not to kill the cat in my arms.

Hearing a chuckle from beside me I turned to glare at Sasuke who was verifying that we had captured the correct target.

Sakura took the demon cat away from me and I glared as it swiftly settled down, purring in her arms. "I don't know what your problem was, Naruto, this cat is a sweetheart."

I narrowed my eyes at it, "It's just trying to trick us into thinking that it's sweet."

"Well, let's go turn in the cat and proceed on our next mission, shall we?" Kakashi-sensei said as he dropped in next to us, reading his small orange book.

"Come on sensei, can't you train us or something?" I practically begged, not wanting to get saddled with another useless mission.

He shook his head, "No, we're going to work on missions for today, maybe we'll train some tomorrow."

I growled under my breath as we all continued to turn in our mission and get our next one, I only hoped that it was something better than chasing a damn cat.

* * *

"Hey Kakashi-sensei? Are we allowed to use ninjutsu on these missions?" I spoke up as I menially started to pick weeds, my other teammates looking up at me as I spoke.

He shrugged his shoulders, "I don't see why not, why do you ask?"

I grinned before I sat up and crossed my hands into a familiar sign, "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" I exclaimed, watching as ten clones popped into existence beside me. "Go my minions, pick weeds!" I instructed them as I continued in my spot.

"I suppose that works, did Nariko teach you that?" He asked me as Sasuke chuckled nearby.

I nodded, "Yup! She taught it to me because she said it was good for my training since I have so much chakra."

He nodded, not saying anything as he 'supervised' while reading his book.

* * *

"Well team 7, you've done quite well today, I'm surprised that you finished so many missions in the same day though." Hokage-jiji said, looking at Kakashi-sensei with a faintly questioning glance. "I'm afraid I don't have any more D-rank missions for today, you'll have to wait until tomorrow for another."

Kakashi-sensei sighed and nodded, "I see, well then everyone, I suppose we have some time to train…"

I pumped my fist in the air and grinned victoriously, earning a curious glance from Jiji and a chuckle from Sasuke and Sakura.

We were about to head out when a bright white fox leapt in through the window, panting faintly. "Ka-kagura?" I spoke up as I recognized the fox, a fox who had just ducked under the attacks of two, now-growling, anbu.

"Hello Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi," She said in her lyrical voice before turning to face Jiji, "I've got a message for you from Nariko and Jiraiya." Her eyes flickered towards us and I frowned, obviously we weren't supposed to overhear the message.

I turned to walk away, hopefully I would be able to talk with Nariko-neechan again tonight; maybe she would fill me in.

* * *

"So… what are you going to train us, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked as soon as we arrived at training grounds 7.

He closed his book and put it away with a dejected sigh. "Well… I think I'm going to have all of you train each other today." He turned his one eye to me, "Naruto, you're going to help Sakura and Sasuke with their taijutsu skills since you seem to know more in that area. Sasuke, I want you to teach Sakura the tree walking exercise since Nariko told me that you excelled in it, and Sakura, I want you to help the boys with chakra control since Iruka announced to me that you flew through that at the academy."

I was about to complain about the chakra control part when Kakashi-sensei stopped me with a look. "Naruto, you and Sasuke might have better chakra control than most, but you're still relying on luck to achieve your goals, Sakura actually knows about chakra control and can teach you a few things about it."

I glared at him for a few moments before I turned to Sasuke and Sakura who would be _my_ students for an hour or so… and I had absolutely no idea as to how it would go. "So… let's run a few laps?" I said with a sheepish smile.

Sasuke rolled his eyes at me, but immediately turned to follow me, who had set up a good pace. I had my gravity seals activated which meant that I would have a challenge by the end of the day as well.

* * *

At the end of the hour, Sasuke took over as the teacher and began to instruct Sakura on how to do the tree walking exercise, with my watching on the sidelines.

Sakura watched Sasuke walk up the tree, a concentrated frown on her face as she did so. After a few moments the frown disappeared and she approached a tree of her own, placing her hand on it and seeming to let chakra flow through her hand steadily. Nodding, she backed away and focused chakra to her feet before she began to walk up the tree; making it look effortless.

Other than the fact that she seemed to struggle with gravity for a while she managed to climb all the way up the tree on her first try, shocking Sasuke and myself with how quickly she had gotten the exercise. She walked down it as well, a bright smile on her face.

That was when Sakura took over as teacher, explaining to us in simple terms how we could improve our own control. She then had us try the exercise again, although I near about fell over when my gravity seals attempted to pull me back down to earth. Gritting my teeth I managed to complete the exercise, slightly slower than Sasuke, but then again he didn't have twice his weight to carry at the same time.

* * *

"That's all for tonight," Kakashi-sensei said as we finished what he had designated for us to complete. "Come back here tomorrow at 8am." He then vanished in a swirl of leaves.

I growled faintly before I turned back to an exhausted looking Sakura and a slightly tired looking Sasuke, not that I was any better off, my legs and abs felt like jelly after that tree climbing…

"So… see you tomorrow Sakura?" I asked her as I offered her my hand to help her back to her feet.

She nodded, "Yeah, see you tomorrow." She gave me a small smile before she turned and began to walk home.

"You don't think he'll make us teach each other again tomorrow, do you?" I asked Sasuke curiously as we began to walk home as well.

My partner shrugged, "He might, but I have a feeling he'll try and make us do a bunch more missions tomorrow instead."

I grinned at that, "Well, I'll just have to make sure that we finish them fast again!"

He shook his head, "I have a feeling that he'll do some sort of toss-up with the other jounin-sensei to get the more time consuming missions."

My head dropped dejectedly, "Damn."

* * *

**Nariko's POV**

Feeling a slight twinge in my consciousness I halted in my movements and performed a summoning jutsu again, calling Kagura back to me. "Did you give him the message?" I asked her as she scratched an ear lazily.

She nodded, "Yes, and he warns you both to be careful, and states that other Konoha jounin out on missions have also been attacked by similar men. There haven't been any casualties yet though."

I sighed in relief, "That's good to hear, thank you, Kagura." She nodded to me before she disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"So we weren't the only ones to be attacked then?" Jiraiya-sensei asked me after Kagura had disappeared.

I nodded, "And I have a feeling that we won't be the last for a while." I started to branch jump again, "So let's finish this mission early and get back to Konoha."

My sensei sighed, "I almost wish they had decided to send Itachi or Kakashi with you instead."

I grinned mischievously, "Yes, but Kakashi has to take care of his team now and Itachi has other duties to take care of. You're stuck with me, sensei."

He rolled his eyes at me, "Cheeky Namikaze brat… I can't wait until you've figured out the actual Hiraishin."

I dropped my grin, my face turning serious, "I can't wait either, but at least I'm making progress on it."

His eyes flickered to look at me from the side, "How far are you?"

I shrugged, "I've finally gotten used to the stronger pull that it uses, but I'm having troubles with fixing the seal so that I can 'see' or 'feel' where I'm going so that I can avoid an attack… otousan either had some scary reflexes or had some way to know where every attack was coming from around his kunai."

Jiraiya nodded, "He never told me how he had done it, all I know is that it was similar to the summoning jutsu, which you have recreated by allowing people to summon you."

I smiled faintly at that, "technically I can use the same thing to summon myself, but it takes too much chakra to use often, and I have limited range."

"How limited?" He asked me curiously.

I shrugged, "I think it's around ten meters? But it works the same exact way as all of the others pendants, except for the fact that I had mine made with my blood already infused in the metal." I unclipped the pendant from behind the pendant of the necklace Naruto and Sasuke had gotten for me two years back. I tossed it to my sensei who looked it over with a critical eye. He tossed it back to me and sent me a brief look.

I rolled my eyes as I clipped the pendant back on my necklace, hiding it behind the fire pendant. Concentrating a small amount of chakra to an area near my neck, I flared it out, pleased when it flashed across the pendant. Having already concentrated my motion I appeared slightly under ten meters away, sticking my landing nicely, despite the flash of dizziness that I got after summoning myself with the pendant. "And before you ask, no, I cannot use this same process the way otousan did, I need a flare of my own chakra directly to the seal to activate it, and it leaves me really dizzy."

"So more things wrong than right, but still considered progress."

I nodded, "But not something that I want to use often, or at all if I can help it." I started off again, my right hand flaring green as I held it to my head to calm my dizziness as I continued.

"He had troubles with the Hiraishin as well, Nariko, he just never exactly told people what they were." Sensei said as he leapt alongside me.

A smile graced my features, "Except for his clumsiness with the landings for a few months; that was always fun to watch." A memory of my father using the Hiraishin to get home early one night and falling flat on his face in the process made me chuckle.

"You can't exactly say much, Nariko, you kept falling on your face in the beginning as well."

I glared at him briefly, "I didn't say that I hadn't, I only stated that that was one of the few problems I remember him having." I huffed and picked up the speed slightly, I wanted to get to a good spot before we set up camp for the night.

* * *

We stopped a few hours later when the darkness closed in too much for Jiraiya-sensei to continue, I could have gone further, but I didn't really rely on my sense of sight most of the time.

Once everything was situated and sensei had entered his tent to go to sleep, I laid down in my sleeping roll and tossed myself back in my consciousness, knowing that the kunai clasped in my hand would do for defense if someone got past the illusionary barrier seals.

"Yo, Rama, Naru-chan, you there?" I hollered out in my mind as I delved into the connection I shared with the two.

A rolling growl announced my favorite fox demon as he turned to glare at me, bars in front of him telling me that we were in Naruto's mind. _**"So nice of you to show up, kit, your brother was beginning to drive me crazy."**_

"Don't you mean crazier, Rama?" I asked him as I propped myself up against his furry chest, reveling in the warmth that he offered.

"Neechan!" Naruto's voice pulled me out of the pleasant reverie I had almost fallen into.

"Heya otouto, how was your day today?" I asked him with a slight yawn, I would need to keep this talk quick, lest I actually fell asleep on them.

He shrugged, "It was alright, Kakashi-sensei tried to get off of training us by giving us a boatload of D-rank missions, but I used my shadow clones to help us finish them fast, but then he had us train each other in different things." He paused for a moment, "Hey, neechan? I saw Kagura today in Jiji's office, did something happen yesterday?"

I stiffened faintly, "Well, something did happen yesterday, but it isn't anything that you need to worry about. Jiraiya and I are both in one piece and we're almost to our destination."

Naruto sighed at my lack of information, but didn't push the subject, thankfully allowing me to keep my secrets. "Other than that, how's your mission going so far?"

I shrugged, "It's going well, but everything still looks pretty much the same, still surrounded by trees at every angle, other than the fact that the forest is thinning slightly. We should arrive at our destination tomorrow in the afternoon if we're lucky which means that we might get home a day or two early." I yawned again. "I should probably get going, I need to get some sleep if I want to be battle ready for tomorrow, not that I'm really expecting a battle." I sighed, a good battle right now actually sounded pretty good… I would need to have a spar with Itachi when I got back into town.

"Goodnight, neechan," Naruto called to me as I began to flicker out of the connection, pulling myself away.

"_**Keep yourself safe, kit,"**_ Kurama said to me alone, since Naruto didn't appear to have heard the giant fox.

"_No promises, Rama,"_ I responded snarkily to him alone, before I pulled myself away completely and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The next morning found Jiraiya and I off once more, but this time we both utilized more caution. We were nearing the town where our target was supposed to be, which meant that we would now need to be on the lookout for enemy ninja or mercenaries that he might have hired.

So we took things at a slower pace, or, Jiraiya took things at a slower pace while I transformed into a small blonde fox and scouted things out from ahead. I would pause every now and then to rest while I waited for him to catch up with me, I could only manage that transformation for around three hours at a time, and soldier pills at strategic resting points only did so much to enhance my time.

By the time that Jiraiya and I finally arrived in the small town, we had both entered with disguises. He had cast a henge over himself that gave him dark brown hair and a few more wrinkles, giving the appearance that he was my grandfather.

I had piled all of my ninja weapons into a seal hidden within the anbu tattoo on my left arm, the seals on my wrists remaining to allow quick access to my twin swords. I had changed my clothes into something a civilian would wear, letting down my hair in the process and casting a slight henge over it to make it dark brown as well.

I growled in distaste of the long, baggy skirts that I had needed to change into; they would only get in my way if things didn't turn out well. But at least they were baggy enough that I could wear a pair of shorts underneath them, I had no qualms about destroying the skirts in the heat of a battle if I knew that I still had something underneath them.

So we entered the town with my pretending to support my grandfather who was hard of hearing and let me do all the talking for him.

"So you're just traveling through?" A store owner asked me curiously, "I'd recommend staying in town for a few days, there's something weird going on around here."

I feigned surprise, "Really? Can you tell me anything about it? I want to steer clear of anything dangerous if possible."

He nodded, "Yeah, recently there have been a lot of strange armed men coming through this town, and most of them crowd around a few buildings down the way, you'll want to steer clear of there and the forest for a while if you can."

I nodded, "Thank you so much for your information; you put my heart at ease with your words."

"I'm glad to hear it, take care." He returned back to his work, hollering at some people who had thought they could steal while the man was speaking with me.

I walked down the street, my eyes picking out an inn nearby, I paid for two adjoining rooms and received the keys, thanking the owner graciously. We got to our rooms and entered only one of them, dropping our disguises as soon as we had assured ourselves of privacy.

"I'll check out these 'buildings down the way' today while you stay here and relax, if you go down to the baths remember to keep your henge up, alright sensei?" I asked Jiraiya as I put one hand on my hip, one eyebrow raised.

He rolled his eyes at me, "Yes, just don't overdo your jutsu, if we end up needing to leave tonight I need you to be ready to do so."

I raised my eyebrow even higher, "Because I never go anywhere with a backup plan or anything." I said sarcastically, gaining a curious look from my sensei. "Please remember that I have a connection with Kurama, and therefore a connection with Naruto, who can summon me if anything goes wrong. Along with that, anyone who is touching me during the summoning will automatically be pulled along with me. Backup plan."

A small chuckle passed his throat, "You're just like your father that way, always having a backup plan in case something goes wrong."

I smiled, "Except for the fact that he always had a backup plan to his backup plan, and I don't."

I left his room and entered mine; changing out of the horrid clothes and switching into pure black clothes instead, leaving my red and black flamed cloak in the seal on my shoulder. I unsealed my weapons and reapplied them to their various places all over my body before I opened the window to my room and transformed into my fox self, jumping out of the window and sprinting off as soon as I was certain that no one was watching.

* * *

I growled faintly as I sat outside one of the buildings, my ears twitching as I waited for any sign that I could enter unnoticed. So far I could tell that the three buildings were too heavily guarded for me to enter without drawing some sort of attention. My eyes glittered, time for plan B.

I transformed back into my normal self, hiding my chakra signal expertly as I remained hidden in the shadows. I then made a shadow clone who transformed into a slightly larger fox than I had originally, making herself look more doglike than foxlike. She then circled the compounds, looking around simply before she froze, seeming to have caught a scent of something. She raced at one of the guards, barking wildly before she snarled at him, refusing to take her eyes off of him.

"Mangy mutt, scram! I'm not giving you my dinner!" The guard cried as he unsheathed his sword and walked threateningly towards my clone while distracting the second guard at the same time, giving me the distraction I needed to sneak past both of them without either noticing me.

I waited a few moments before I found a random guard patrolling the grounds, female, and around my size. I knocked her out swiftly and took her uniform while I stuffed her unconscious body into a useful closet and sealed my clothes away. I bundled all of my hair up into a cap that she had been wearing, and went on my way, 'patrolling' the compound.

* * *

"Orochimaru will pay us heavily for this if we can pull it off," A man's voice said from behind a door that I was approaching, my sharp hearing caught the words and I barely held back a smile. _'Bingo'_ I thought as I approached the guard waiting outside of the door, "Hey, I'm supposed to take over here, boss said yah was going to be given a different assignment, wouldn't want to keep 'em waiting, would yah?" I spoke in an accent to hide my Konoha roots.

The guard in front of me scanned me over for a few moments, "Better not screw up." He said gruffly before he left and I took his spot 'guarding' the room, this was really too easy…

"The attack will take place in five days, the guardian of the house is out of town somewhere, and the elder brother will be distracted by the large-scale attack on the south side of the village. We have orders to take in Uchiha Sasuke only, anyone who gets in the way is supposed to be cut down." The same voice spoke up.

"Does anyone know where the guardian currently resides? If she gets back before the attack it could prove detrimental to our success."

I fought the urge to narrow my eyes as I stared forward alertly. They were planning to attack Konoha in order to get Sasuke for Orochimaru? And Itachi would be distracted by the attack on the village, which would happen while I was out of town… I turned my full attention back to the speakers.

"My informants state that she left the village with Jiraiya the sage, supposedly on her first mission since dropping out of anbu. She was seen to be heading towards Suna, but could be anywhere on the map."

I smiled within my mind, so taking that thirty-minute detour towards Suna had actually been a smart plan, now they didn't actually know where I was.

A cough came from inside of the room, "Will the troops be ready in five days to attack?"

I couldn't hear a response and so assumed that someone had nodded or something.

"Well then, I suppose there is nothing more to be done here, we shall set out tomorrow."

Hearing footsteps approaching the door I stepped slightly further to the side, my hands clasped behind my back in a normal position, my eyes staring straight ahead. The door opened and three people exited, all three men. One of them turned to spare a glance at me, "I have never seen you around here before… state your name and ranking!" He clearly was the first voice that I had heard, the one who seemed to be in charge of everything.

"Hitomi Miko, patrol guard, sir!" I barked out, not turning to look at him.

"And why is a patrol guard standing outside of my door?" He growled, narrowing his eyes at me.

I would not be fazed by this though, "I was told to switch with the guard before me since he was to be given a different assignment; there seemingly has been a disturbance of some sort by the north entrance."

He stared at me for a few more moments before nodding and walking away, the other two men following afterwards.

I smiled tightly as I entered the room once they had all left, shutting the door softly behind me before I turned to look the room over. It was practically empty, but there were a few maps and papers strewn across the table. I went to those and scanned them briefly with my eyes, memorizing them easily. The papers held tallies of how many men there was, how many of them were ninja, and where they would be placed.

I growled as I saw a tally of jounin level ninja, this was not going to be a simple distraction simply to take Sasuke, this was an attempt at annihilating a majority of our living forces, and losing Sasuke would be an even larger blow to the village.

Footsteps approaching the door and two loud, recognizable, voices pulled me out of my reverie, forcing me to rush towards the window and escape, swiftly running through the hand signs that caused my vulpine transformation.

* * *

I was panting by the time I made it back to my room, and it didn't help that my sensei had locked his window, forcing me to hold my transformation even longer while he took his dear sweet time in getting it open for me.

I collapsed as soon as I entered the room, my transformation fading away and leaving me in the stolen uniform from before, my limbs on fire with chakra depletion.

"Nariko? You overdid it again, didn't you?"

I snarled at him as I painfully pushed myself into a sitting position while I popped a soldier pill in my mouth, grimacing at the sudden flow that fluttered through me. I waited for a few moments while the pill took effect, although not nearly doing me as much good as I needed it to do. "Yeah, I overdid it again, sensei, but I got the information we needed, although whether its information that we will _like_… that's another story."

Proceeding to tell him what I had found out caused his eyes to widen faintly before his expression turned thoughtful. "I have a feeling that you've already come up with a plan though?"

I nodded, fatigued though I was. "Yeah, I contact Naruto through Kurama and have him get Itachi to go to Hokage-jiji before summoning me. I drag you with me and leave a clone here; you tell them all what I've told you, as soon as I get my clone to summon me back here."

He narrowed his eyes at me, "And what do you plan to do about this when you're currently in no condition to do anything?"

My eyes glared at him, "I'll be fine after a good night's sleep, and then I'll follow the army, putting a few seals on people every here and there while they're sleeping. They don't require any chakra for me to place, and then when they get close enough to Konoha I can simply activate the seals, paralyze, hopefully, over half of the army and then fight alongside my comrades. You can tell Hokage-jiji to ensure that Kakashi, Itachi, and yourself remain with Sasuke and Naruto so that nothing happen to them, Orochimaru cannot get his hands on either of them, even if he doesn't yet know about Naruto."

Jiraiya-sensei did not seem very pleased about this idea, but he also didn't appear to have any other bright ideas.

"I'll be careful, Sensei, and I'll steer clear of the ninjas who would be able to find me out. Placing seals on guards, normal mercenaries, and lower level ninja won't be hard for me, and some of the jounin-level ninja won't be able to sense me either." I got to my feet as steadily as I could, some chakra having returned to me during our conversation. "And if anything goes wrong I can get Naruto to summon me back immediately."

That seemed to appease him for the time being because he finally nodded, "Do it, Nariko." He said with a faint sigh as he leaned against the door while I sat on the bed, entering my subconscious faintly.

* * *

**And… that's it! I thought a cut-off for this chapter would be decent enough, especially since I probably won't have enough time to write up the next chapter before I leave out of town again.**

**I apologize for how bad Nariko's mission was… and to clarify things… Sarutobi knew that something was going on in the village that he sent Nariko to, and so sent her to figure out what was going on. She found out… and now everything is going crazy, especially since she used up quite a bit of chakra with all of the transformations she used throughout the day…**

**Next chapter will hopefully clear more of this up…**

**Please review! I live off of reviews, and… they make my day, ^^**


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